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now ARE YOU, MV FINE FELLOW?” SAID THE YOUNG VIRGINIAN. 







A DOUBLE MASQUERADE 


Itomanxc of |ieboIution 



Author Honor Bright^' “ Royal Lmprie^'' “ Royal Lowrie's 
Last Year at St Olaves,^ “ Parlor Come- 
dies^' etc.^ etc., etc. 





ILLUSTRATED 



BOSTON 
D. LOTHROP AND COMPANY 

FRANKLIN AND HAWLEY STREETS 




V 


-4 



Copyright by 

D. Lothrop and Company 
1884 



O 






Chapter. 

CONTENTS. 

Page. 

I. 

At the Sign of the Golden Ball . 

7 

II. 

Master Brenshaw changes his Coat 

33 

III. 

A Moonlight Introduction . 

59 

IV. 

A Sunday Morning Breakfast 

82 

V. 

The Mysterious Stranger Again . 

102 

VI. 

The Two Arrivals 

123 

VII. 

A Morning .\larm 

147 

VIII. 

The Battle of Bunker Hill , 

177 

IX. 

Ensign Wiggles worth .... 

204 

X. 

Master Gervaise is Arrested . 

. 221 

XL 

The Escape 

. 258 

XII. 

Master Brenshaw leaves Boston . 

. 287 







A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


CHAPTER I. 

AT THE SIGN OF THE GOLDEN BALL. 

U PON the road between Worcester and Bos- 
ton, and not many miles from the latter 
town, there stood, in the year 1775, an old-fash- 
ioned tavern whose sign was a huge yellow ball. 
Before this tavern, about three o’clock of a pleasant 
day in early June-time of the year just named, two 
travellers drew rein. They were mere lads, not 
above sixteen years of age at the most, and of an 
appearance quite unusual in that part of the country. 

The foremost was a bright-looking, handsome 
young fellow, well-dressed and well-furnished, 
mounted upon a valuable black horse, and sitting 
in his saddle as though he had been born there. 
7 


8 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


There was about his whole make-up an air of rank 
and importance which did not fail to extend itself 
to his manner, though this to an amusing and in- 
teresting rather than offensive degree. The other 
of the two seemed not so much a companion of 
the first as a part of his belongings. He was 
dressed in a suit of smart livery, and was evidently 
a servant — a stout negro lad with a grave, comical 
face that, though black as midnight, shone like the 
noonday sun beneath his velvet hunting cap. 

Dame Hannah Holcomb, mistress of the Golden 
Ball, had come out upon the porch after dinner to 
bask awhile in the afternoon sun, and had fallen 
asleep over her copy of the Massachusetts Spy — a 
seditious little sheet published every Thursday 
morning in the town of Worcester, and for whose 
rebel utterances the good dame cherished in her 
heart the profoundest contempt. Dame Holcomb 
was a fat, jolly looking woman, clad in a striped 
homespun gown and with a yellow handkerchief 
tied about her shoulders. An enormous sun-bon- 
net lay on the settle beside her. She started up 
at the sound of horses’ feet, 


AT THE SIGN OF THE GOLDEN BALL. 


9 


The young gentleman on the black horse took 
off his cocked hat and made the landlady a bow, 
though with such merry, exaggerated politeness as 
plainly marked his sense of the difference in their 
stations. 

*‘Good day to you! Mistress Golden Ball,” 
cried he, “will you be so good as to tell me 
where I want to go ? ” Then he laughed outright 
at the awkward form he had given his question — 
a hearty, boyish laugh that seemed the natural 
outcome of the winning smile with which he had 
begun to speak. “ I want to find — ” he went on 
more seriously — “a lady of the name of Bren- 
shaw, widow of the late Matthew Brenshaw. I 
was told that she lived on the outskirts of this vil- 
lage, and within a mile of the sign of the Golden 
Ball. Can you tell me just where ? ” 

Dame Holcomb had risen from her seat, and 
returned his bow with an even more elaborate 
courtesy. She stood now, staring and rubbing her 
eyes, hardly able yet to separate this gay young 
stranger and his picturesque attendant from the 
creatures of the dream their coming had disturbed. 


lO 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


“Oh,” said she, with a bewildered air, “you 
mean Lady Brenshaw, of Brenshaw Hall.” 

“ Nay, then, but I don’t,” returned the lad testily. 
“There’s but one Lady Brenshaw that / know of, 
and she is the wife of Sir Gervaise Brenshaw, of 
Brenshaw Hall in England. I believe we did hear, 
though, that uncle Matthew named his house here 
after the old place at home.” Then, “ So she 
calls herself Lady Brenshaw, does she ? ” he in- 
quired. 

“ La, no, sir ; she don’t do that exactly. But 
other people do call her so sometimes, as a kind 
of nickname. She be English born and bred, and 
do hold herself summat above common folks ; and 
people hereabouts don’t like it mostly.” Then, 
her glance still dwelling upon the stranger with 
mingled awe and admiration, she ventured a ques- 
tion on her own account. “ You be from England 
yourself, maybe, sir ? ” She had an idea that he 
must be some English prince or lord ; and, unlike 
most of her neighbors, she privately held the king 
and his nobility in high esteem. 

“ England ! I ! ” The young gentleman scowled 


AT THE SIGN OF THE GOLDEN BALL. 


II 


at her almost fiercely. Then he looked down 
doubtfully at his London-made clothes. Evidently 
he was far from being a victim to that passion for 
appearing “ English ” that has seized so violently 
upon the young people of his class of the present 
day. “ Do I look as though I came from Eng- 
land ? ” murmured he. “ Before George ! If I 
thought that, I’d change clothes with my boy 
Pomp there, this minute.” Then he twisted him- 
self around in his saddle. Pomp, you rascal, do 
you think I look as though I came from England ? ” 
The negro, who had settled himself into a some- 
what jaded attitude upon his jaded horse, looked 
up stupidly. 

“ Don’t know nuffin’ ’bout England, Mars’ 
Jarvy,” he slowly answered, shaking his head. 
“ T’ink he look like he come from Birginny. T’ink 
he look like gen’leman ! ” 

His master laughed, well-pleased. He turned 
again to the landlady. 

“ No, my good woman,” said he, with a wave of 
the hand, “ I am not from England. I am from 
the Old Dominion.” 


12 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


“ La ! ” exclaimed Dame Holcomb, with undi- 
minished respect. A great many of the king’s 
finest gentlemen were known to have settled in the 
Old Dominion. “ So you are from the loyal colony 
of Virginia ? ” 

Humph!” was the reply. “I don’t know 
about the loyal My Lord Dunmore might have a 
word to say about that. However ” — with a curt 
change of tone — “that’s neither here nor there. 
Be so good as to tell me, if you please, how I shall 
get to this Brenshaw Hall.” 

“Brenshaw Hall, sir, lies on a cross-road a 
mile on from here. But you should have come a 
month ago if you wished to see Madam Bren- 
shaw. She packed up her goods and went into 
Boston to live — she and her two daughters and 
all her servants — nearly three weeks agone.” 

“ What ! ” cried the lad in astonishment. Then 
he demanded sternly, as though he were disposed 
to hold the dame herself responsible for the fact, 
“What’s that for, I should like to know.” 

“ Well,” said the landlady, lowering her voice, 
“ a body may tell you the truth, sir, though it’s 


AT THE SIGN OF THE GOLDEN BALL. 


13 


little good generally to speak the truth, with peo- 
ple so unreasonable like and full of hatred and 
rebellion toward their lawful rulers. And the 
truth is, sir, they did treat her right shameful, with 
posting up their notices about her, warning her to 
quit the country, and hooting after her whenever 
she drove by, and hanging about the place of 
nights, throwing stones at the windows just because 
Miss Dolly chose to play God Save the King upon 
her harpsichord. And, indeed, they did declare 
one night they’d burn the house down.” 

“ Is that the way they treat an unprotected 
woman in this region ? ” broke in the young gentle- 
man, with flashing eyes, dropping his hand upon 
the holster of his saddle. “ Upon my word, I 
wish I had come a month ago.” 

“ Well,” the woman explained, willing to apolo- 
gize for her misguided countrymen, “ it must be 
confessed that she did make herself awful aggra- 
vating to ’em. Why, one night when they went 
over there, she came out on the steps and told 
them to their faces they were a set of low-born 
traitors and cowards. That was the time they 


14 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


threatened to burn the house. They’d a-done it, 
too, if it hadn’t been for Elnathan Ruggles. 
Elnathan he got up on the fence and said how her 
husband’s brother in Virginia was a true patriot 
and friend of the colonies, as they all had heard, 
and had spoken out strong for liberty in the House 
of Burgesses ; and for his sake, Elnathan told ’em, 
they ought not to harm Madam Brenshaw or her 
property. And when Madam heard that, she right 
out and said that Mr. Edward Brenshaw of Vir- 
ginia was a worse traitor than any of ’em, and that 
she disowned him and his forever, then and there, 
and wanted no favors shown her on his account. 
But they went off and left her, without carrying out 
their threats. They couldn’t help but respect her 
and admire her courage.” Dame Holcomb nod- 
ded her head as though she herself were quite 
proud of Madam Brenshaw’s spirit. “When the 
arrangement was made with General Gage, though, 
after the Lexington fight, by which all people out- 
side the town could go in if they chose and put 
themselves under protection of the King’s troops, 
she concluded to go. She has a house there. 


AT THE SIGN OF THE GOLDEN BALL. 


^5 


where they used to live before they built out here, 
on account of Mr. Brenshaw’s health.” 

The young gentleman sat with a troubled ex- 
pression, pondering what he had heard. 

“ Well,” said he at length, only half aloud, “ I 
suppose, then, I shall have to go into Boston to 
find her ; though that is likely to be no easy mat- 
ter in the present state of affairs. And it is prob- 
able that she will shut her door in my face, even if 
I should find her. It seems she has disowned us 
all.” He sat and considered a moment longer. 
Then, “ At any rate,” he concluded, with an air of 
final decision, “ I can’t go any farther to-day.” He 
threw himself out of the saddle, and leaving his 
horse standing, went up the path to the porch. “ I 
suppose you can give me bed and board for the 
night ? he said to the landlady. 

“ Oh ! bless you, yes, sir,” the woman answered, 
and turned at once toward the door. 

The young gentleman waiting a moment to give 
his servant some direction as to his horse and 
baggage (the latter consisting of a big leathern 
valise which was strapped behind the negro), fol- 


1 6 A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 

lowed Dame Holcomb indoors ; and having ar- 
ranged with her for the immediate preparation of 
his dinner, he took his way up stairs to his room. 

“ You go along the entry at the head of the 
stairs,” Dame Hannah instructed him, “to the 
farthest door on the right. You must excuse my 
not going up with you, on account of my rhumatis, 
which is going to last me pretty near all summer, 
I’m afraid. As for servants, the only one we’ve 
got about the place has gone down to Nabby Pen- 
field’s to spend the afternoon. And my husband, 
he druv over to Wrentham Centre early this morn- 
ing, and ain’t got back yet.” 

The 5^oung gentleman went on up the stairs, only 
half attending to these apologies and explanations ; 
and following the banister in the narrow hall 
above, he came presently upon two doors facing 
each other, one of which, after a single moment’s 
hesitation, he pushed open. 

The room within was thoroughly darkened, only 
a dusky beam of light forcing itself in here and 
there through the cracks of the shutters. The 
visitor walked straight to one of the windows and 


AT THE SIGN OF THE GOLDEN BALL. 


17 


threw open the blind, letting in a flood of glaring 
sunlight. The next instant he heard a rustling of 
the corn-husk bed, and then, to his vast astonish- 
ment, a human voice : 

“ I say now, what a set of rascally land-lubbers 
— hold there, sirrah ! What are you doing there ? 
Stand where you are, or ” — 

The first of these two incomplete sentences was 
uttered in the querulous tones of a half-awakened, 
still dreaming person ; the second in accents as 
clear and hostile as the sharp click of the pistol 
lock which was permitted to finish it. 

The lad turned around instantly. On the bed, 
in the corner, a second person was now plainly to 
be seen — a young fellow of about his own age, 
who had evidently been aroused from sound sleep 
by the opening of the shutter, and who, raised upon 
his elbow, was regarding the intruder with angry 
eyes while he levelled point blank at him a small 
brass pistol. 

This individual had his clothes on, save 
his coat and his shoes, and was dressed in a 
rustic suit of brown, with a coarse shirt and neck- 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


l8 

erchief, and gray worsted stockings. So much as 
this our hero took in at a glance. 

“Who in the name of the Seven Wonders are 
you ? ” he demanded in profound astonishment. 

“ Who 2X0, you ? would be a question more to the 
point,” returned the other fiercely. “ What are 
you doing in this room ? ” 

The intruder looked around him comically. 
“ Well,” said he candidly, “ it does look as though 
I had gotten into the wrong room.” 

“ It certainly does, sir ; and you had best take 
yourself out of it at once.” 

But the young gentleman in gold lace did not 
fancy being addressed in such manner by a person 
in a russet suit. 

“That ril be shot if I do,” he haughtily de- 
clared, “ until you drop that pistol and change your 
tone.” 

“You are more likely to be shot if you don’t,” 
observed the other grimly. Nevertheless, he now 
allowed the hand containing the weapon to fall 
upon the bed, and his manner had unconsciously 
lost something of its fierceness as he realized 


AT THE SIGN OF THE GOLDEN BALL. 19 

that the intrusion was due simply to a mistake. 

“ And,” continued the Virginian contemptuously, 
“ I don’t know but it would be a good thing, after 
all, for the King to send troops enough over here 
to teach you Massachusetts country bumpkins your 
manners. You don’t seem to know how to treat 
your betters. I don’t wonder that my aunt Bren- 
shaw moved into town.” 

And with that he turned on his heel, and, cram- 
ming his hand into the pockets of his scarlet waist- 
coat, walked, with ostentatious deliberation, out of 
the room. 

A half-hour later the young traveller, refreshed 
by a careful toilet, was summoned below again to 
the inviting dinner which Dame Holcomb had pre- 
pared. The good lady hovered about him as he 
took his seat, anxious for his comfort. 

“ Will you have tea or coffee, sir ? ” she asked 
him. 

The question, seemingly an innocent one, 
was in fact an established formula in Massachu- 
setts for ascertaining the political sentiments of a 
guest — a point which, in the present instance, the 


20 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


Dame had not as yet been quite able to settle with 
herself. 

“Tea!” exclaimed the lad. “I thought you 
didn’t drink tea here in the Bay Colony, since 
Parliament put a tax on it.” 

“Oh,” returned the landlady, having her answer 
ready, “this is some we have had in the house 
since long before that. We keep a little of it 
always on hand for the use of quality folk that 
visit us.” 

“ Nevertheless,” declared the lad, frankly accept- 
ing the explanation, but determined to stick to his 
principles, “ I think I’ll go without mine, with the 
rest, if it’s only to let His Majesty know that we 
colonists mean what we say. Coffee’ll be good 
enough for me.” 

So the coffee was brought, and then Dame 
Holcomb sat down with her knitting a little way 
off, while her guest, for a few moments, devoted 
himself exclusively to his dinner. Presently, h^- 
ever, his natural good humor now fully restored^ 
the young man looked up at his hostess. 

“ So, my good dame,” said he gallantly, “ you 


AT THE SIGN OF THE GOLDEN BALL. 2 1 

not only furnish your guests with the best of cheer 
to refresh them, but you also provide them with the 
best ot company in which to eat it.” 

“ La ! ” cried the dame, greatly flustered, “ it is 
you folk from Virginia for making fine speeches, I 
must say. But I thought mayhap you’d be lone- 
some-like, all by yourself here, and would be glad 
of some one to talk to you.” 

“ To be sure ! ” replied the youth gayly. 
“ Though if at any time I should seem to fail at 
all in my attention to yourself or your discourse ” 
— this was said with a chicken bone upon which 
he was engaged still raised to his lips — “I beg 
that you will attribute the fault solely to the not 
superior, but still quite irresistible charms of the 
dinner you have given me. Upon my word, 
madam, I am deeply grateful to you for not having 
broiled me still another of these delicious chickens. 
I should have eaten it for very lack of will to re- 
sist tjie temptation, and should then have had no 
capacity left for the bestowal of the most excellent 
pudding which you have also set forth.” 

“ La ! ” murmured the dame again, and sat a 


22 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


moment, seeming fairly to bask in the warmth of 
his generous praise. Then, as her needles re- 
sumed their industrious clicking, she hazarded a 
question in the interests of her own still unsatis- 
fied curiosity. 

“ You said you came from Virginia, sir. May- 
hap you are acquainted with Mr. Edward Bren- 
shaw, Madam Brenshaw’s brother ? ” 

The youth laughed. “Well, now,” cried he, “ I 
should certainly say I was. He has the honor to 
be my father.” 

“ Bless me ! ” ejaculated the landlady, evidently 
impressed. “ Then Madam Brenshaw is your 
aunt ? ” 

“ Yes ; Mr. Matthew Brenshaw was my father’s 
brother. They two came to America together 
thirty years ago. Uncle Matthew stayed here in^ 
Boston and got rich, and my father went to Vir- 
ginia. They were only younger sons. There’s a 
third brother in England, who had the place and 
title — Sir Gervaise Brenshaw. That is my name, 
Gervaise Brenshaw. ’Twas my grandfather’s name 
also. It’s a common name in the family. I’ve a 


AT THE SIGN OF THE GOLDEN BALL. 


23 


cousin in England of that name — about my age, 
I believe. He’s a midshipman in the Royal 
Navy.” 

The young gentleman had now waxed very com- 
municative, it would seem ; and he was so inter- 
ested in what he was saying that the chicken 
bone was allowed to fall upon his plate. He 
was, indeed, an open-hearted, ingenuous young 
fellow, full of sociability, and with a boyish fond- 
ness — easily enough forgiven by those who lis- 
tened — for hearing himself talk. 

Dame Holcomb, however, was quite as much in- 
terested in his present discourse as the speaker 
himself. 

“ Dear me ! ” she said, as the lad paused. And 
then, with proper solicitude, she inquired : “ I 

hope you left your father, Mr. Edward Brenshaw, 
quite well, on his plantation ? ” 

“ Oh, yes ; I left him well enough, though not 
on his plantation. He’s in Philadelphia, with the 
Congress that’s met there. He isn’t a member of 
the Congress, you know ; but he was bound to be 
there, all the same. He’s got a scheme in hjs 


24 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


head, and Til wager a sovereign I know what it 
is, too, for all he’s so close about it. He wants to 
get Colonel George Washington of Mount Vernon 
made commander-in-chief, if we should raise an 
army. They couldn’t get a better man than Colo- 
nel Washington. I’ll say that for him, though I 
don’t like him over well myself. He’s too dignified 
and stern by half. He’s a born soldier, though. 
Ah ! but you should see him ride to hounds ! I 
teased my father,” so the lad ran on, “ until he 
took me to Philadelphia with him ; and then I 
teased him again until he let me ride on up here. 
I’ve come up to represent the family in this Bos- 
ton business. I told him that if there was to be 
any fighting, one of us ought to be here ; and of 
course he couldn’t come with that ball in his thigh 
that he got up at Lake George twenty years ago. 
He said there wouldn’t be any fighting at present, 
and if there was, he didn’t want me in it. But 1 
told him that if he didn’t let me come I should 
come without his letting me ; and finally he said I 
might take Pomp and come up and pay my aunt 
Brenshaw a visit. He believes in teaching boys to 


AT THE SIGN OF THE GOLDEN BALL. 25 


take care of themselves. And now” — the lad 
suddenly concluded with a change of tone — “now 
I’ve come, my aunt isn’t here at all. She’s moved 
into Boston. And according to what you tell me, 
she has disowned us all. Why, we didn’t know 
she was such a rabid royalist, though of course my 
uncle married her in England. I say now, you 
don’t suppose, do you, that she will shut the door 
in my face when I come to present myself ? ” 

The landlady shook her head doubtfully. 

“ I don’t know,” said she. “ She’s a terribly 
set woman ; and she does hate the King’s enemies. 
She always speaks of your father as ‘ that rebel.’ ” 
“ And so he is a rebel, if there is to be any re- 
bellion ! ” declared the young gentleman hotly, 
pounding his fist upon the table. “ And I am a 
rebel too, every inch of me ! Nevertheless, I am 
going into Boston to see her, if I can get in. I 
guess she won’t turn me out of doors. People 
don’t treat their own relations in that way. And, 
besides, I want to see my cousins. I’ve never 
seen ’em yet, you know. They must be big girls 
by this time, aren’t they ? ” 


26 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


“ Why, yes,” answered the dame. “ Miss Dolly 
is sixteen, I believe, and Miss Patty is only a 
year younger. Nice girls they are, too, both of 
them, though they’re no more alike than — than a 
rose and a pansy. Miss Dolly, she’s gentle and 
quiet-like as she can be — always going about and 
doing good. She would insist on telling people 
their duty to the King, though ; and they wouldn’t 
stand that hereabouts. She’s like her mother in 
that. She believes that the King is the Lord’s 
Anointed. As for Patty, she’s a wild, harum- 
scarum sort of girl, always bound to do as she’s 
told not to. That’s the reason of her being such 
an out-and-out little rebel, I suppose. She’s a 
bright, nice girl though, and everybody likes her.” 

“ I tell you what it is,” shouted the young gen- 
tleman, as he listened to this description of his 
cousins, “ I will go into Boston to see ’em to-mor- 
row morning. All the King’s horses and all the 
King’s men sha’n’t keep me out. That is what I 
came up here for, and I’m going to do it. Halloo ! 
Why, if here isn’t my slumberous friend ! ” 

A slight noise at this point of the conversation 


AT THE SIGN OF THE GOLDEN BALL. 


27 


had caused Master Brenshaw to turn his head, and 
the last words were due to his sudden discovery of 
the presence of the individual whom he had en- 
countered a while before in the room above. The 
latter was standing just inside the door of the 
room (how long he had been there did not appear), 
and with his hands in the pockets of his homespun 
coat was regarding our hero with great apparent 
interest, though he still looked somewhat sleepy 
and unkempt. As he now saw him for the second 
time. Master Gervaise was struck by the fact that 
his sunburned face was fine and handsome, and that 
he had an air about him not exactly in harmony 
with the common dress he wore, or the position he 
seemed to occupy. Gervaise nodded to him good- 
humoredly. 

“ How are you, my fine fellow .? ” said he. “ I 
hope you have waked up better-natured than you 
did a little while ago.” 

The person addressed took time to saunter 
carelessly over to a chair at one side of the room, 
and seating himself there, to yawn'lengthily, before 
he replied, in a broad Yankee accent, as drawling 


28 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


and nasal as that of the countryman in General 
Burgoyne’s play : 

“ Wall, I d’ no. I’m most allwus gin’rally purty 
good-natured.” 

He yawned again, and looked up coolly at Ger- 
vaise. 

The latter glanced back at him suspiciously. 

“You seem to have waked up with a pretty 
strong Yankee accent,” said he. “ I didn’t notice 
anything of the kind when I stumbled into your 
room awhile ago and woke you up.” 

“ Hev yeou ben in my room ? ” inquired the 
other, with a lazy assumption of surprise. “ Wall, 
naow, that’s curous. ’N’ did I speak to ye ? Hum ! 
Must ’a’ ben talkin’ in my sleep, then. Jes’ like 
me. Got a habit that way.” 

“ And I suppose,” observed Gervaise ironically, 
“that if that brass pistol of yours had gone off, 
that would have been talking in its sleep too.” 

“ Did I p’int my pistol at ye ? Wall, naow, 
that’s curous. But a man ain’t r^^sponserble for 
what he doos in his sleep. Lucky for yeou it didn't 
go off. As for my Yankee accent, as yeou call it, 


AT THE SIGN OF THE GOLDEN BALL. 29 


I do hope you’ll excuse it. Ye can’t hardly ’xpect 
folks in these parts to talk as graymattercal as 
yeou grand people daown in Virginny.” 

“ How do you know I came from Virginia .? ” 
demanded Gervaise angrily. “ You must have 
been listening there at the door.” 

“ Wall, ef people talk a good deal abaout their- 
selves, they must ’xpect to hev their private 
affairs overheard sometimes,” replied the other 
with careless impudence. “ S’pose ye’ll go on ter 
Bosting t’ see yer a’nt an’ cousins ; don’t ye think 
ye will ? ” 

“ I don’t know that it matters to you what I am 
going to do, or what I am not going to do,” burst 
forth our hero, now fairly worked into a rage by 
the imperturbable insolence of the stranger. “ And 
I’d have you know I don’t allow everybody to 
speak to me of my relatives.” 

He got up from his chair and stood confronting 
the other. 

But at this juncture Dame Holcomb interposed, 
begging that there might be no quarrel on her 
premises, and assuring young Brenshaw that the 


30 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


Other lad meant nothing by what he had said. At 
the same time, she bestowed upon the latter a be- 
seeching glance, in obedience to which — though 
he had seemed entirely unmoved by the threaten- 
ing aspect of Master Gervaise — he got up from 
his chair and with rather an odd expression upon 
his face, left the room as deliberately as he had 
entered it. 

“ Who is that fellow, pray ? ” Gervaise inquired 
scornfully, as he resumed his seat. 

“ Oh,” said the landlady, “ he is only a — a per- 
son that is stopping here. He isn’t responsible 
for what he says. He doesn’t know any better.” 

“ Then he ought to have somebody to teach 
him better,” the lad declared. 

After dinner Master Brensbaw mounted his 
horse again, and directed by the landlady, rode 
over to Brenshaw Hall to take a look at the place, 
though, of course, he knew now that he should find 
it deserted. He came back just at dusk, and being 
very tired, went directly to bed, and was before 
long asleep. 

Some time in the early part of the night he was 


AT THE SIGN OF THE GOLDEN BALL. 3 1 


awakened by low voices outside the house. He 
arose and went to the window. In the road below, 
by the bright light of the moon, he saw two per- 
sons — one of them on horseback — whom he at 
once recognized as Dame Holcomb and the late 
occupant of the room opposite. They were talk- 
ing earnestly together, though he could understand 
nothing of what they said. Presently the stranger 
leaned over in his saddle and dropped a piece of 
gold into the landlady’s hand. Then, with a wave 
of the hand, he rode away. 

Gervaise went back to bed again ; but with 
wondering who this mysterious stranger could be 
who acted so queerly, and who took his sleep in 
the daytime, and rode abroad when others were 
in bed, it was long before he again closed his 
eyes. 

In the morning, as he went out into the hall, his 
eye fell upon a folded piece of paper that had been 
dropped near the opposite door. He picked it up, 
and opened it. On one side was what purported 
to be a “ Map of the town of Boston,” roughly 
sketched, but evidently by some one who had accu- 


32 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


rate and recent knowledge of the place. On the 
back of the paper, carelessly jotted down, as 
though by way of a memorandum, were the words, 
“ Lechmere's Ft. Rocks ^ just N. Saturday night from 
eight to twelve. Abercrombie.^^ 

He stood a moment examining this paper, turn- 
ing it back and forth with a puzzled face. Then 
he nodded wisely to himself, and put it away in his 
pocket. 


CHAPTER II. 


MASTER BRENSHAW CHANGES HIS COAT. 

T he Boston for which, not very early the next 
morning, Gervaise Brenshaw set out, and 
where, in the course of the next week or two, he 
was to meet with some surprising adventures, was 
a very different place from the bustling city in 
which, more than a hundred years later, this ac- 
count of those adventures is being printed and read. 

The reader will best realize the difference by 
comparing the map of Boston which Gervaise had 
picked up outside his bedroom door at the Golden 
Ball (and which is reproduced here) with any con- 
venient plan of the city at the present day. In 
the one case we have a complete peninsula, of an 
extent no greater than the eye seems easily able to 
take in, crossed and divided by a comparatively 
small number of streets and lanes about which the 
33 


34 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


Stranger in those times would have found no more 
difficulty in finding his way than he might to-day 
in many of our rural towns, and almost any one of 
which would have served to bring him out pres- 
ently into view of the town common, or the staff on 
Beacon Hill, or the north mill-pond, or of Long or 
Hancock’s wharf. In the other case this penin- 
sula, extended on every side by the filling in of the 
flats, and joined to the mainland by numerous 
bridges, is no longer a peninsula at all ; and the 
town — not separable to the eye from the flourish- 
ing communities about it — appears a solid mass 
of busy streets, vast warehouses and crowded dwel- 
lings, among which even the boy who is Boston 
born and bred has sometimes to inquire his way. 

And this difference (while we are speaking of 
it) was not confined to the physical aspect of 
the town. The people were different too : different 
in number, for where there are twenty -five or thirty 
now there was then but one ; different in manners 
and customs ; different in ideas ; different in dress 
and appearance and speech. Among other things 
the foreign population was different. In the month 



PLAN of 

The TowNorBosToisr. 


A, Clintoft^s Qrs 

tfr Hancock Hou%e>.. 

B .Prison^^^ Ct House 

C, Old B. Meeting H, 

D, Kings Chapel, 


m June IJ JS 

Governor's H» /. Tcneuil Hall, 

F. Adml, Craves. J. Granay Public, 

G. Burgojffte Qrs, 

H. Houre'i QrS» 





MASTER BRENSHAW CHANGES HIS COAT. 


of June, 1775, the foreign population of Boston 
consisted chiefly of about ten thousand men, who 
were quartered all about the town and who wore, 
all of them, red coats and carried the King’s mus- 
kets. And as one takes another look at Master 
Gervaise’s map and realizes again how completely 
the town in those days was a peninsula, connected 
with the mainland only by the narrow neck, at 
Roxbury, one can but think what a capital place 
it was in which to coop up a British general and 
his army. His Excellency Governor Gage should 
have thought twice before he sent out that de- 
tachment of his troop to Concord and Lexing- 
ton, one April morning, to stir up the country peo- 
ple and bring down upon him in forty-eight hours’ 
time some thousands of New England minute men, 
fierce as hornets, to occupy the neighboring heights 
and shut him up in the town. 

As Gervaise Brenshaw, toward the hour of noon, 
drew near to the town, and, here and there on his 
way, learned more accurately the political situation, 
he began to realize as he had not before done, 
that a condition of things prevailed that was little 


38 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


short of actual war, and that Boston was in a state 
of siege. The Americans had settled themselves 
in camp around the town ; fortifications had been 
thrown up and guns planted all along the shore 
from Boston Neck to Charlestown ; and all ordi- 
nary communication with the surrounding country 
was cut off. 

Such a state of things was very likely, of 
course, to interfere seriously with his visit to his 
aunt, a fact of which he was fully assured when, 
just on the outskirts of Cambridge village, he was 
roughly accosted by three men — soldiers, no 
doubt ; although the cockades in their hats and 
the guns they carried were the only outward evi- 
dence of the fact — who, after questioning him a 
moment, concluded that it was not necessary to 
arrest him, but informed him that he could go no 
farther in that direction. “ But I want to go on 
into Boston,” protested our hero. “ I’ve got to go 
into Boston.” 

The leader of the three shook his head. 

“ Can’t help it. You can’t pass our lines with- 
out a pass from Gineral Ward — or Old Put.” 


MASTER BRENSHAW CHANGES HIS COAT. 


“ Old Put ? ” Gervaise repeated eagerly. ** Is 
that Major Putnam ? ” 

“Yes; that’s Major Putnam, or Gineral Put- 
nam. He’s a brigadier-gineral too.” 

“Where is he ? Can I see him ? ” 

“ He’s down at the Inman place — down t’other 
side the village. One of us c’n take ye down 
there, I s’pose.” 

“ I’ll give one of you a dollar if you will,” said 
Gervaise joyfully. He had good reason for be- 
lieving that if he could see General Putnam the 
difficulties of the situation would vanish. 

“ All right,” the man answered. “ Here, Bar- 
clay, you take him down.” 

So, Barclay walking along by his horse’s head, 
Master Gervaise rode on into the village, Pompey, 
of course, still bringing up decorously in the rear. 
They found themselves presently in the midst of 
the American camp, where were gathered together 
in barracks hundreds of men, an inexperienced, 
undisciplined, poorly equipped band, as was plainly 
enough to be seen ; but a band that had come 
there with a purpose, and that was doing all it 


40 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


could, day by day, to prepare itself for the desper 
ate conflict that now seemed inevitable. 

Going on past the meeting-house, the jail, the 
court-house and the brick colleges which, with the 
hundred or more of houses that surrounded them 
made up the pleasant village of Cambridge at this 
time, they followed the road which seemed to lead 
down toward the water, until presently, near a tav- 
ern whose sign was a blue anchor, it was crossed 
at right angles by another road. Turning here to 
the left they came almost immediately upon a 
spacious mansion standing on a rise of ground on 
the north side of the road before which Barclay 
halted our hero, informing him, with a jerk of the 
thumb in the direction of the house, that “ Gin’ral 
Putnam was gin’rally to be found in there.” 

Gervaise dismounted and /eaving the horses 
with Pompey, walked in through the gate and up 
the steps. He was met here by another sol- 
dier, whose appearance also was military only 
by reason of the musket he carried and the air 
with which he demanded to know the visitor’s 
business. 


MASTER BRENSHAW CHANGES HIS COAT. 4 1 

“ Is General Putman at home ? ” Gervaise asked 
by way of answer. 

“What d’ye want of him ? ” inquired the man, 

“That,” said Gervaise brusquely, “I’d prefer 
explaining to himself if it doesn’t matter to you.” 

“All right,” said the man, not a particle of- 
fended. “You’ll find him inside there — fust 
door t’ the right.” 

Gervaise advanced to the door indicated, and 
hesitating a moment before he knocked, heard 
some one whistling within. Then, in answer to his 
rap, there was a careless summons to enter ; where- 
upon he pushed the door open and stepped in. 

On a sofa by the window sat an individual whose 
appearance, though neither elegant nor exactly 
dignified, was decidedly striking. He was an 
elderly man, seemingly about sixty years old, some- 
what round-shouldered, though of a figure tall and 
powerful, sitting in his shirt-sleeves, and dressed — 
to give his costume complete — in a checked shirt, 
a faded red waistcoat, dark homespun small- 
clothes, coarse blue stockings and thick leathern 
shoes. On the sofa beside him was a three-cor- 


42 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


nered hat with a red cockade in its crown ; and a 
calico banian or sacque coat hung over a chair 
near by. He sat with his legs spread wid^ apart, 
and held in his lap a bandelier which he was mend- 
ing. He did not look up at once, but kept on ply- 
ing his waxed ends and whistling to himself, while 
our hero waited, hat in hand. When he did raise 
his head it was to show a homely, sun-burned face 
marked by an expression of mingled energy and 
joviality. Such was General Israel Putnam of 
Connecticut, a man plain, frank, fearless, indomit- 
able, true — a good specimen of the farmer-patriot 
of the American Revolution. 

“Well, my lad? ” he said ; and then, seeming to 
perceive that our hero’s appearance was not quite 
ordinary, he regarded him with some interest. 

“ Are you — may I — that is, can I see Major 
Putnam Master Gervaise was much less at his 
ease than was generally the case when he found 
himself in the presence of strangers, and the ques- 
tion was asked mechanically. In point of fact he 
knew very well that he already saw Major Putnam. 
There was no mistaking this queer old veteran. 


AT (;ENERAL PUTNAM'S HEADQUARTERS 





vM 

S-.rV*-^- 

‘WVV* 

> V ♦«•>*- 



• ’.> ^ 

>i »? • 

r« » •* 














MASTER BRENSHAW CHANGES HIS COAT. 


He had recognized instantly the hero of the old 
French wars, the soldier friend of his father, who 
had once saved that father’s life and whom he had 
described to him a hundred times. 

“Yes,” was the blunt answer. “You can see 
Major Putnam, if you will hold up your head and 
look at him.” 

“ My father said I should find you here,” ob- 
served Gervaise, still a good deal embarrassed. 

“ Oh, he did ? Well, I’m very much obliged to 
him, I am sure. I don’t know where else I should 
be at a time like this. I’m blest though, if I have 
any idea who your father is, my young friend.” 

“ My father is Captain Edward Brenshaw of 
Virginia.” 

“ What ! ” The old soldier straightened up in- 
stantly and looked at his visitor in astonishment. 
Then he got up from, his seat, and advancing to- 
ward him, seized him by the shoulder of his velvet 
coat, and turning him toward the light, gazed ear- 
nestly into his face. Then he grasped his hand. 
“ God bless you, rny boy ! I couldn’t get it 
through me for a minute, but I can see it now in 


46 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


every line of your face — though I haven’t set eyes 
on Edward Brenshaw for fifteen years. Where is 
he ? — How is he ? — What are you doing here } — 
Why isn’t he here in a time like this ? ” 

“ He’s down at Philadelphia with the Congress,” 
answered Gervaise, holding up his head manfully 
now. “ He would be here, if it wasn’t for that ball 
in his thigh. You know how he got that, sir. He 
has told me a thousand times how he’d have got it 
in his heart instead, if you hadn’t run in and struck 
down the Frenchman’s musket. You haven’t for- 
gotten that, sir? ” 

The old soldier laughed gleefully. 

“ Bless my soul ! ” he answered, “ I believe I do 
remember. And what are you doing up here 
so far from home ? Have you come up to do the 
fighting for the family ? ” 

“ Well,” declared Gervaise stoutly, “ I believe I 
would do it, if it came to that. Father said he 
didn’t think there would be any fighting; but if 
there was any, he said I was to keep out of it. I 
have come up here to visit my aunt. She lives 
back here in the country a bit. But I found she 


MASTER BRENSHAW CHANGES HIS COAT. 47 


had moved into town ” — Gervaise went on and 
told his father’s friend all about his aunt Bren- 
shaw and how he had suddenly found his visit in- 
terfered with by her removal into Boston. “ Father 
said,” he concluded, his tongue at full gallop now, 
“ that if I got among the soldiery down here, I 
was to ask for you. He said you’d be here as sure 
as gunpowder. He said he knew you ; you’d start 
and run all the way down here as soon as you 
heard of the Lexington fight, like as if you was 
going to a fire. And he said you’d take care of 
me if I got into trouble. I haven’t got into trouble 
that I know of, and I don’t want any particular 
taking care of. But I would like it, sir, if you 
could fix it so I could go into Boston. I do want 
to see my aunt and cousins, now I’ve come up 
here.” He looked up with boyish eagerness as he 
made the request. 

But the old man shook his head gravely. 

“ You don’t know what you ask, my boy,” said 
he. “ It is risky business, going in and out of 
Boston nowadays, even if I could arrange it so as 
to pass you. I’ll think about it. You may be sure 


48 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


I will do anything for you that is in my power and 
that I think your father would approve. There is 
nothing I would not do, my boy, for your father’s 
son. Meanwhile you must stay here with me for the 
present. There’s a room up-stairs. Stowellwill 
see to it. He’s the man who showed you in.” 

There was a knock at the door ; a well-dressed, 
dignified looking gentleman was shown in, and 
Master Gervaise went off to see about his servant 
and his horses. 

After dinner, General Putnam having busi- 
ness which called him to various points along 
the rebel line, invited his young guest to accom- 
pany him, an invitation which the boy gladly 
accepted. During the ride Gervaise enjoyed the 
honor of being introduced to General Ward, the 
commander-in-chief, and also to General Nathaniel 
Greene and General Thomas, each one of whom 
knew of his father, and received him very kindly. 
He also saw a great deal that was novel and inter- 
esting, and by putting together what he saw and 
the answers which his companion seemed always 
ready to give to his eager questions, he was able 


MASTER BRENSHAW CHANGES HIS COAT. 49 

now to get a very fair idea of the situation. The 
Americans had gathered in large numbers and had 
completely surrounded the town on its land side, 
entrenching themselves at Dorchester, Roxbury, 
and all along the shore of the Back Bay through 
Cambridge to Charlestown Neck. They were 
waiting now to see what the enemy would do and 
what measures Congress would take; but they 
were fully determined that there should be no 
more midnight marches into the country save over 
their dead bodies. The English on their part 
held undisputed possession of the town itself, but 
they were closely shut up in it, and although on 
the twenty-fifth of May they had been reinforced 
by the arrival of the three major-generals, Howe, 
Clinton and Burgoyne, with several thousand addi- 
tional troops, they did irot at present think it quite 
prudent to venture forth. Meanwhile communica- 
tion between town and country was practically 
stopped. There had been an arrangement made 
late in April by which any who wished to come into 
town and put themselves under protection of the 
King’s troops could do so, while those citizens 


50 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


who chose to quit it might also do so, under cer- 
tain strict conditions as to arms and property. 

But the terms of this agreement had not been 
fairly adhered to by General Gage, and it had 
presently been abandoned. Gervaise, learning all 
this, fully appreciated now the difficulties that lay 
in the way of his paying a visit to his aunt, and 
reluctantly acknowledged to himself that it must 
for the present be given up. It was fated, however, 
that the visit should be made, and he should spend 
that very night beneath Madam Brenshaw’s roof. 

Just at sunset Gervaise strolled off by himself 
along the Charlestown road, turning off across the 
fields finally, thinking to make his way down to 
the water and then back home along the shore. 
He came presently upon a cart-path which seemed 
to lead in the right direction, but wishing to make 
sure of this, he inquired of a man whom he met if 
the path would take him to the shore. 

“ Wa’ll, yaas,” was the answer. “ ’T’ll take ye 
right straight down ter Lechmere's Point.” 

“ Ah! ” uttered Gervaise, and then passed on, so 
occupied with the information he had received that 


MASTER BRENSHAW CHANGES HIS COAT. 


51 


he forgot to thank his informant. “ Lechmere’s 
Point.” Was not that the name written on the 
back of his map of Boston ? He pulled out the 
paper and read over once more, by the now fast 
fading light, the words upon its outside, of which 
he had thought little when he had first noticed 
them there. 

Lechmere's Ft. Rocks just JV. Saturday night. 
From eight to twelve. Abercrombie. 

Then slowly it dawned upon him that this was 
a memorandum of some appointment, and (which 
gave vast interest to the fact) that the time and 
place of this appointment were close at hand. It 
was now Saturday night and nearly eight o’clock ; 
and the path he was following led directly to 
Lechmere’s Point. Could it be that the mysteri- 
ous youth whom he had seen at the Golden Ball 
was expecting to meet somebody here to-night ? 
Gervaise felt his interest in this individual revive. 

“ I’m blest if I don’t go and see, at any rate,” 
muttered he. “ If it’s for nothing but to give him 
back his map.” 

He walked on along the path, very soon arriving 


52 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


in sight of the water and of the town beyond. 
Passing through some bars and crossing a meadow 
of marsh grass, he found himself at length on a 
narrowing point of land which he knew must be 
Lechmere’s Point ; and turning to the left he 
almost immediately perceived, looming up in the 
dusk, a pile of rocks close by the water’s edge, 
that was, without doubt, the precise locality men- 
tioned on the paper. The place seemed entirely 
quiet and deserted, and he stood a few moments 
upon the shore looking over across the river to the 
town opposite, now scarcely distinguishable save 
by its numerous lights. Over beyond the town a 
mellow radiance just appearing in the east an- 
nounced the rising of the moon, only a day or two 
past its full. And as he still stood there, pen- 
sively enjoying the scene, a gentle breeze, creeping 
across the water, brought faintly to his ears the 
distant roll of a drum and the sound of martial 
music. “I vow!” he cried, half aloud, “I would 
like to be over there ! The idea of being within 
ear-shot, almost, of one’s own cousins, and yet 
not being allowed to go near them ! I wish I 


MASTER BRENSHAW CHANGES HIS COAT. 53 

had a boat. T’d go over, allow it or not allow it.” 

He glanced along the shore as he spoke, as 
though to see if perchance there might not be a 
boat of some description near at hand. He 
started suddenly as his eyes fell again upon the 
pile of rock^. For one moment, close beside them 
and half concealed within their shadow, there had 
appeared against the sky the outline of a human 
figure. 

He was certain of it, although instantly it 
had disappeared. There was somebody there, 
then — some one, perhaps, who was waiting for his 
strange acquaintance of the day before. He 
turned and walked toward the place. The next 
moment the dark form again showed itself in the 
shadow and a harsh voice called upon him to 
halt. 

“ Hold ! Who goes there ? ” 

“ Oh,'” said Gervaise coolly, paying no attention 
to the challenge and continuing to advance. “ You 
are here, are you ? You are good and prompt, too. 
It isn’t five minutes from eight o’clock this instant. 
I’ll wager a button.” 


54 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


“ We tried to be on time, sir,” was the reply, in 
a pleased and entirely submissive voice. 

Gervaise, half in jest and upon the impulse of 
the moment, had spoken and acted as though he 
were the person with whom, he believed, a rendez- 
vous had been appointed here; and the ruse 
seemed instantly to have succeeded. 

“ Mr. Hodges said you might be here on the 
minute and it wouldn’t do to keep you waiting.” 
Then the man came forward too, and Gervaise was 
able to make out that he wore the dress of a man- 
o-war’s-man. The lad had seen man-o’-war’s-men 
in plenty, on board the English ships of war that 
come up the Potomac. 

“Then Hodges didn’t come with you.^” Ger- 
vaise asked with cool assurance. 

“ No, sir. He said how he couldn’t manage it, 
sir. He couldn’t even get a boat, so he took us 
three of us out of one of the Preston's boats and 
sent us over here in an old scow he picked up 
ashore. We are not from the Somerset at all, sir ; 
but he said we should know you all the same. I 
was to ask you for the Word, sir, you know.” 


MASTER BRENSHAW CHANGES HIS COAT. 55 


“ The Word ” repeated Gervaise. 

“Yes, sir; the countersign. He said you would 
know it.” 

“ Oh,” said Gervaise, “ the countersign ? ” He 
stood looking down at the ground, sadly put to it. 
Then he shook his head. “ Beshrew me if it 
hasn’t slipped out of my head entirely,” said he. 

The man seemed perplexed. “ I wish you 
would remember it, sir, if you can,” said he. “ I 
know, of course, you are the young gentleman that 
was to be here ; but orders is orders, sir.” 

“Well, then,” said Gervaise, “you’ll have to 
help me to remember it. What kind of a word was 
it, anyway ? What letter did it begin with } ” 

“Well, sir, you wouldn’t have to go outside of 
your a-b-abs to find it.” 

“ Oh,” cried Gervaise, instantly remembering 
the word upon his paper. “ I have it now ! It’s 
AbercrombieP Then he added to himself, “ And 
stupid of me not to have thought of it before.” 

“ All right,” exclaimed the man joyfully, “ I 
knew you would know it.” He turned at once to 
lead the way around the rocks. 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


56 

“ The skiff is right here, sir.” 

Gervaise hesitated, taking a single instant to 
make up his mind. Should he follow this strange 
adventure farther? Here was a boat and its 
crew, quite at his service, to take him over to the 
town if he liked — just what he had been wishing 
for five minutes before. Why should he not avail 
himself of the chance, since he was scarcely likely 
to have another ? With merely so much of reflec- 
tion, he all at once yielded to the reckless spirit of 
adventure that was natural to him, and followed 
the man down to the water’s edge. 

There was a boat grounded on the beach, in 
which two men were sitting. Gervaise without a 
word took his place in the stern ; and the man, 
pushing off the bow, also stepped on board. 

“You’ll find your uniform there in the stern- 
sheets, in a bundle, sir,” said the man as he shipped 
his oars. “ Mr. Hodges sent it along. He said 
how you would want to put it on before you went 
on board.” 

“ Very well,” returned Gervaise cheerfully. 
“ That was very good of Hodges, I’m sure. I cer- 


MASTER BRENSHAW CHANGES HIS COAT. 57 


tainly shouldn’t want to go on board without a 
uniform.” He picked up a bundle which lay at 
his feet and began to unroll it. 

“ Shall we give way, sir ? ” 

“ Oh, yes ; give way, of course.” 

“ For the Somerset 'i ” 

“ Why, hold on, though. I’ve got to go over to 
the town first ; pull directly across.” 

“All right, sir,” replied the man, accustomed 
to unqestioning obedience. 

Gervaise opened his bundle, and by the light of 
the now risen moon examined its contents. These 
consisted of, first a military cocked hat with a 
cockade, and then a short blue jacket, a white 
waistcoat and a pair of dark pantaloons, the out- 
ward dress of a naval officer — a midshipman, no 
doubt. 

As he held them up he began to compre- 
hend fully the position of affairs. A midshipman 
from one of the King’s ships in the harbor had 
been away — either on special duty or, possibly, 
on some private adventure — and the boat had 
been sent to the Point, according to previous agree- 


S8 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


merit, to meet him on his return and take him off. 
By a curious chance, assisted largely by his own 
enterprise, he, Gervaise Brenshaw, had been taken 
for this midshipman and now found himself in 
his place, with his uniform in his hands. 

The situation was certainly a very romantic and 
funny one : To its serious side Master Gervaise 
did not at the moment give much attention. He 
thought himself upon the whole extremely lucky. 
He had wanted to go to Boston, and here he was 
being rowed in the direction of the town as rapidly 
as he could reasonably desire. And since the 
British authorities were so very particular as to 
who came in and out, it would be well to consult 
their feelings in the matter so far as to appear 
in a British uniform no doubt. “ At any rate,” he 
concluded to himself, “I think I’ll put it on. 
My aunt, at least, will think a deal more of me, 
I have no doubt, if I am dressed in the King’s 
livery.” 


CHAPTER III. 


A MOONLIGHT INTRODUCTION. 

IV /Taking no further ado therefore, he pro- 
ceeded to substitute for his own outer 
raiment the articles from the bundle, a task which 
was hardly accomplished to his satisfaction before 
the shore of the town was found to be close at 
hand. They had fallen in with not a single ves- 
sel or boat in their passage across, and now, as 
they drew up to a dark and unfrequented part of 
the shore, to our hero’s great relief, no sentry’s 
challenge was heard and no solitary person seemed 
to be anywhere within hearing. 

Gervaise as he had ridden along in the morn- 
ing had studied his map pretty thoroughly, and 
had in his mind a tolerably good idea of the 
geography of the place. He directed the men to 
pull straight in, and presently the boat grounded. 

59 


6o 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


Then, leaving his own discarded apparel in the 
boat — for he did not think it best to burden him- 
self with it — the lad stepped on shore. 

“ Shall we wait here for you, sir ? ” asked the 
man in the bow. Gervaise reflected a moment. 

“ No,” said he. “ Pull back to the Point again. 
It is possible you will find another person there 
— a fellow about my size. You’ll know him by 
his having the Word, as you did me. Take him 
off if you find him and obey his orders. You 
needn’t wait after twelve for him, though. As for 
me, I’ll look out for myself.” 

Then, with the buttons of his midshipman’s 
jacket glittering in the moonlight, he turned 
toward the town. 

“ Now,” said he gayly, “ now for my aunt and 
cousins.” 

Gervaise had landed at a point just above 
where Cambridge street then as now ran down to 
the water ; and presently gaining this thoroughfare 
(at that time, in this vicinity, only a lonely, ill-kept 
road) he made his way along it, turning to the 
right in a few moments and coming out at the 


A MOONLIGHT INTRODUCTION. 6 1 

base of a considerable eminence which, remem- 
bering his map, he concluded to be Beacon Hill. 
A few steps farther brought him out upon a more 
frequented street and into sudden view of the 
Common upon which, white and picturesque in the 
moonlight, were to be seen the tents of the sol- 
diery encamped there, with groups of men scat- 
tered about among them. 

Gervaise did not linger here, however, having no 
especial business with the King’s troops, and re- 
membering that the evening was wearing on. He 
kept on to the left, with no idea as yet where his 
aunt’s abode was to be found, but thinking it like- 
liest to be in the more thickly settled portion of 
the town. He met very few persons as he walked 
along ; and of these few more were soldiers and 
officers than townspeople. Of several of the latter 
he made inquiry as to Madam Brenshaw’s resi- 
dence, and finally found one who thought he knew 
of her, and by following whose directions, he pres- 
ently found himself in a secluded locality once 
more and among a number of respectable looking 
dwellings, at the door of one of which he knocked 


62 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


and made farther inquiry. Here he was told that 
if he meant the Widow Brenshaw who had lately 
moved back from the country, he would find her 
house by going through an adjacent lane and pass- 
ing along the street to which this would lead him 
until he came to the house, a large one on the 
right, standing back from the road, and which he 
was assured he could not mistake. Obeying these 
instructions, he found himself a little later before 
a residence which he did not doubt was that of 
which he was in search. 

Through an arched way, whose gates were wide 
open, Gervaise looked up a broad path, between 
hedges of box-plant, to where, some distance away, 
and upon an elevated site, there stood one of the 
finest specimens of the town houses of that day, a 
large, square mansion three stories high, with a 
balustrade about its roof, a balcony above its 
broad front steps, and a roomy piazza at either 
end. The grounds about the house were very ex- 
tensive, adorned here and there with flower-beds, 
arbors, and trained shrubbery, but consisting for 
the most part of a fine, natural lawn, ornamented 


A MOONLIGHT INTRODUCTION. 


63 


by grand old forest trees and irregular rocks and 
slopes. 

On the left, from a carriage gate, a driveway led 
in and off around the side of the house, toward a 
mass of snowy stables and outbuildings in the 
rear. The whole scene, distinctly enough visible 
in all its parts, yet, seen at this distance, and by 
the soft, subduing light of the moon, seemed to our 
hero exceedingly romantic and attractive. 

There was an air of comfort and elegance about 
it that was different entirely from that of the plan- 
tation homes with which he was familiar (about 
which, however great the wealth of the proprietor, 
there was always a look of well-to-do squalor and 
want of thrift), and that pleased him greatly. 
Moreover, he was but a lad, and he was far, far 
away from his own home and family. His heart 
went out with homesick longing toward this house 
and those of his own blood that were within it. 

One of the rooms below was brightly lighted. In 
it, doubtless, at this very moment, his cousins 
and aunt were sitting. He would go up and pre- 
sent himself at once. He took a step forward, but 


64 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


then he stopped. His aunt ! Somehow or other, 
as he thought of her, a kind of chill fell upon 
him. He had heard her described often by his 
father — a tall, dignified lady, one, who, though 
her excellencies were not few, was proud, cold, 
haughty, and difficult of access. The vision of 
such an one rose before his mind’s eye now, and 
he halted before it abashed. And this lady was a 
conspicuous royalist, who despised all enemies of 
the King, and who had publicly disowned her hus- 
band’s brother and all who belonged to him, on 
account of his well-known rebel sentiments. Could 
it be possible that she would not receive him ? — 
would turn him out of doors ? 

Gervaise had hardly thought seriously of such a 
possibility up to this moment ; but he thought of 
it now, and fully realized its likelihood. Then, 
suddenly, as he looked doubtfully toward the 
house, there fell for an instant upon one of the 
curtains of the lighted room a tall, erect shadow, 
moving stiffly across it. 

At the sight the boy started, and instinctively 
drew back outside the gate. He laughed at him- 


FEW STEPS FAKTHEK BROUGHT HIM IN SUDDEN VIEW OF THE COMMON, 






A MOONLIGHT INTRODUCTION. 


67 


self the next moment, but none the less he ac- 
knowledged to himself that he was afraid to meet 
his aunt. 

“True as I live,” said he, “I don’t dare go in 
now I’ve got here. What a poltroon I am ! But 
I’m perfectly certain now that she won^t have any- 
thing to do with me. What in the world am I to 
do ? ” 

At this instant, in the midst of his perplexity, 
the sound of girlish voices attracted his attention 
and told him that somebody was coming along 
the street, although the deep shadow cast by the 
line of trees prevented him from seeing them. 
Then suddenly, as he listened, the sounds were 
mingled with the rougher tones of men’s voices. 
A moment later he heard a shout, and a coarse 
laugh ; there was a scream and a cry for help ; 
and then there appeared in view a short distance 
away two feminine forms, closely followed by two 
men, the latter laughing and cursing as they ran. 

At this sight Master Gervaise, who a moment 
before had been calling himself a poltroon, and 
had been in such a flutter at the sight of a shadow 


68 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


upon a curtain, instantly forgot all about himself 
and his troubles, and flew into an incontrollable 
rage in behalf of somebody else. 

“Why,” cried he, “if here aren’t a couple of 
great hulking fellows insulting some ladies, and 
frightening them out of their senses.” 

With that he started toward the group, which 
had now come to a stand beneath the trees. The 
two ladies — Gervaise saw as he drew near that 
they were mere girls — had halted, breathless and 
terrified, and were clinging to each other near the 
fence. Their pursuers, two stout fellows in the 
scarlet uniform of the King’s troops, were close 
upon them. 

Gervaise, fairly beside himself, rushed past the 
girls and threw himself headlong upon the fore- 
most of the men. 

“ Oh, you villains ! ” he shouted. “ Oh, you 
cowards ! You scoundrels ! ” 

And he clutched wildly at the fellow’s throat, 
with a vague notion, perhaps, of dragging him to 
the ground, and tearing him to pieces on the spot. 

The man himself, up to this moment hardly 


A MOONLIGHT INTRODUCTION. 


69 


aware of the presence of another person, finding 
himself thus fiercely attacked, drew back bewil- 
dered and astonished. Then he seized his youth- 
ful assailant by the shoulders, and with one power- 
ful wrench tore him from his hold and hurled him 
violently against the fence. 

Gervaise was on his feet again instantly, how- 
ever, and placing himself before the girls, again 
confronted their assailants, almost ready to cry 
with rage and mortification. And although he 
did not renew the attack — experience had taught 
him the folly of that — he gave free rein to his 
tongue. 

“ Oh, you cowards ! ” he cried again, his voice 
high-pitched and trembling. “ So this is your 
trade, is it, insulting ladies in the public ways, 
just because they chance to be without a protector > 
Ah ! ” He shook his head in impotent wrath. 

“ If I were only a few pounds heavier, Td take 
your two heads and knock ’em together until you 
couldn’t see out of your eyes ! True as I live, I 
would ! ” 

And he stood there glaring at the men, not one 


70 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


bit afraid of them at least, though he might be 
powerless. 

At this point, the second of the two, he who had 
had no part in the encounter, laid his hand on his 
companion’s arm. 

“Why, Oliver, man,” said he, “where are your 
eyes ? Don’t ye see the young gentleman is an 
officer from one o’ the ships ? ” Then he turned to 
Gervaise with an air of complete humility. “ We 
beg your pardon, sir. We meant no harm. We 
thought ’twas a couple of servant girls going home 
with the wash ; and we ran after them a moment 
just for the sport of it. And my comrade here, he 
didn’t have time to see you was in uniform, sir, 
you jumped on him so quick. And with your 
Honor’s permission, we’ll just go on about our 
business.” 

He drew his companion back as he finished, 
and the two whirled about and disappeared, glad 
enough, no doubt, to get away without being recog- 
nized or questioned by the supposed officer. 

Our hero, with no further thought of them, 
turned to the two girls. They were still standing 


A MOONLIGHT INTRODUCTION. 


71 


by the fence, though now in a more natural atti- 
tude ; and in spite of the fact, now first noticed by 
him, that a large basket stood on the ground be- 
side them — which they had evidently been carry- 
ing between them, and which had doubtless helped 
to deceive the soldiers as to their quality — he saw 
at once that they had the dress and air of ladies. 
They seemed to him one about his own age, and 
the other perhaps a year younger ; and there was 
something about them that suggested the thought 
of their being sisters. It occurred to Gervaise in- 
stantly that they might be his cousins. His hat 
came off, and he made a low bow as he addressed 
them. 

“ I hope that you ladies are none the worse for 
this encounter ? ” he began. 

“ Oh, dear, no ! ” at once cried the younger of 
the two. “ We are almost frightened to death, 
that is all. We are so much beholden to you, sir, 
for your brave interference. Ugh ! Those horrid 
soldiers ! I am all out of breath this minute with 
running and fright.” 

Then the other of the two, with something more 


72 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


of dignity, but not less sincerely, added her ac- 
knowledgments to those of her sister. 

“ Indeed, sir,” she said, with a ladylike courtesy, 
“ we are deeply grateful to you for interfering so 
nobly in our behalf.” Her speech, as well as her 
manner, had in it something of the primness that 
characterized the time. “ It would have been ex- 
tremely unpleasant for us had you not come up as 
you did. Those men acted very strangely for sol- 
diers of the King.” 

“ Strangely ! ” exclaimed the younger girl. “ I 
don’t think they acted strangely at all, Dolly. 
They acted as the King’s soldiers have always 
acted in this town. They are a horrid, brutal, dom- 
ineering set ; and for my part, I shall be thankful 
when the people rise up and drive them all into 
the ocean — as they will do before long.” 

“You forget, Patty,” said the other young lady 
indulgently, evidently accustomed to such warm 
expressions of opinion on the part of her compan- 
ion, “that it is to one of the King’s soldiers that 
you are speaking this minute and to whom we owe 


our deliverance.” 


A MOONLIGHT INTRODUCTION. 


73 


“Oh,” observed Patty, with an arch glance, 
isn’t a soldier. He is a sailor — and wouldn’t 
mind being driven into the ocean at all.” 

She evidently knew a naval uniform when she 
saw it, even by the light of the moon. 

Gervaise laughed awkwardly. From the names 
these young ladies had used in addressing each 
other, he felt certain now that they were his cou- 
sins ; but he suddenly found himself put rather 
less at his ease than more so by the fact. 

“ 1 certainly have a sailor’s uniform on, if that 
makes a sailor,” he replied. “ And I think I 
should mind being driven into the sea, so I hope 
the young lady,” (he bowed to Patty,) “ doesn’t 
mean quite all she says. As for my coming up as 
I did, I — I just happened to be about here and 1 
heard your cries, and so I hurried up as fast as I 
could.” 

He was all the while trying to make up his mind 
just how he had best declare himself to them. 

“ It was very brave of you, sir ; and we thank 
you ever so much,” the elder girl again said. 

“ Yes, indeed ! ” joined in Miss Patty. “ It was 


74 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


very brave and — and splendid. We thank you 
ever so much.” 

Miss Dolly seemed now suddenly to realize that 
the interview could not properly be farther pro- 
longed; and taking her sister’s arm, she saluted 
their preserver with another courtesy. 

“But we must not keep the gentleman, Patty. 
Permit us to thank you once more, sir, and to bid 
you good evening.” 

Then, before Gervaise was well aware of their 
intention, they had taken up their basket again, 
and were moving away. 

The lad looked after them in dismay. What ! 
Were they going off, leaving him out here in the 
street no better off than he had been before they 
appeared \ He felt that this must not be, and he 
started after them. 

“ Oh, I say, now ! ” he cried, almost piteously. 
“You must let me carry the basket for you. 
Really you must.” 

And he laid hold of the basket desperately. 

“ Why,” declared the elder girl, halting, and be- 
traying some embarrassment, “ it is nothing but 


A MOONLIGHT INTRODUCTION. 


75 


some dishes and things that we were bringing 
back from old Mammy Stout’s in Frog Lane. We 
can easily carry it, sir. We are right here at our 
own gate.” 

“But,” pleaded the lad, maintaining his hold 
upon the basket, “ you must let me take it up to 
the house for you.” And he blurted out the truth. 
“Why, I was just going there, when you came 
along. I give you my word I was. I was coming 
to see you. I am your cousin!'^ 

“ Our cousin ! ” 

The girls stopped short and gasped out the 
words together, looking at him in amazement. 

“ Yes,” Gervaise eagerly went on, “ I am your 
cousin Gervaise — Gervaise Brenshaw. Now may 
I go up to the house with you 'i ” 

He put out his hand, and enjoying their inno- 
cent wonder, gave utterance to a peal of boyish 
laughter. He felt quite sure at least that these 
two kindly-spoken cousins would not disown him ; 
and since he should now go up to the house in 
their company, his misgivings as to his aunt’s re- 
ception of him seemed also to vanish. 


76 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


“ Go up to the house with us ! ” cried the young 
ladies, with one delighted voice. “ Indeed, you 
may, if you are really our cousin Gervaise ! ” 

“ For, indeed, we are hardly able to believe it, 
all at once so,” declared Dolly breathlessly. 

“ No,” said Patty, with an appearance of being 
dazed. “ I dorCt believe it. I do think I am only 
dreaming this minute, and have been all the time, 
about those soldiers, and all.” 

“ But you are heartily welcome, cousin Ger- 
vaise,” continued Dolly, “ if it is really you — wel- 
come to Boston and to our house. Come, then ! 
We will go in at once, that our mother may also 
welcome you. She will be delighted, you may be 
sure. We speak of you very frequently, and have 
often wished we might see you here, though we 
never have supposed it possible that you should 
come. How long have you been in this part of 
the world ? ” 

They had now entered the gateway, and were 
walking up the path. 

‘‘In this part of the world 1 ” repeated Gervaise 
absently. “ Oh, not very long.” 


A MOONLIGHT INTRODUCTION. 


77 


He was thinking of what she had just before 
told him. So they spoke of him often and wished 
that he were here. This was good news, surely ; 
and his aunt must be a very different person, after 
all, from what he had been led to think. 

“ We heard that you had entered the Royal 
navy,” Patty put in briskly. “ But we little 
thought your ship would ever bring you in this 
direction.” 

“ Eh ? ” uttered Gervaise. He repeated the 
words to himself. “ Heard I was in the Royal 
navy ! What does the girl mean ? ” He looked 
down at his uniform. Then he laughed, believing 
she had spoken in jest. “ It’s quite a joke,” said 
he, “ how I came by my uniform. I’ll tell you 
about it when we get into the house.” 

At that instant, as they mounted the steps of 
the terrace and approached those of the house 
itself, the front door opened, and the figure of a 
lady appeared, clearly defined against the back- 
ground of light. 

Gervaise started involuntarily. It was the fig- 
ure that he had seen upon the curtain, the tall, 


78 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


rigid, imposing outline that had always seemed to 
stand before him when he thought of his Tory 
aunt. In spite of what Dolly had said, his heart 
sank again within him. 

“Oh,” cried Patty, impulsively, “there is mam- 
ma now. I must go and tell her who it is that is 
come.” 

She left her new-found cousin with her sister, 
and ran forward up the steps. 

A moment later Dolly and Gervaise mounted 
the steps also, and entered within the door. 

“Mamma,” cried Dolly, this is cousin Ger- 
vaise. Isn’t it wonderful } ” 

Then as our hero looked up at the tall, pale 
lady who stood there, and felt her dry hand take 
his, and heard the cold, formal tones in which she 
spoke to him, his former fears returned overwhelm- 
ingly upon him. And her words themselves, 
though in point of fact she meant them to be very 
gracious, made his confusion and helplessness 
complete. 

“ So you are my young nephew, Gervaise Bren- 
shaw, the son of my husband’s brother. Sir Ger- 


A MOONLIGHT INTRODUCTION. 


79 


vaise Brenshaw of Brenshaw Hall. You are wel- 
come, my dear boy, to our humble home here in 
America — doubly welcome in that you come from 
the old country and wear the livery of your King. 
I would that all of our family were as loyal as you 
to their rightful sovereign. Alas, that your father’s 
younger brother has proved himself a traitor to his 
King!” 

These words as Gervaise listened to them still 
bending over the lady’s hand, affected him not 
simply because they assured him that after all 
Madam Brenshaw cherished toward his father the 
bitterness of feeling that he had at first supposed, 
but also because they revealed to him a most 
astonishing fact beyond this. They had mistaken 
him — naturally enough considering all the cir- 
cumstances and the uniform he wore — for his 
young English cousin of the same name, a mid- 
shipman in His Majesty’s Navy. It was Gervaise 
Brenshaw of England, not Gervaise Brenshaw of 
Virginia, whom they had talked of so often and so 
much desired to see ; it was Gervaise Brenshaw of 
England whom they supposed to have come to 


8o 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


them now; it was Gervaise Brenshaw of England 
whom the loyal lady of the house was so impos- 
ingly receiving at this moment. Gervaise Bren- 
shaw of Virginia shuddered as he thought how 
chilling a thing that welcome would become should 
he declare to this very stately lady who he really 
was. 

Declare to her who he really was ! He could 
not do it. Plucky and ready young fellow as he 
has in these pages already shown himself to be, 
he was mortally afraid of this woman, his aunt, 
and stood dumb and terror-stricken before her. 
He knew not what to do or say ; and, indeed, he 
was hardly capable of doing or saying anything 
just then. He was obliged to hold up his head at 
length ; but it was only to cast about him a dazed, 
despairing look. What would have happened next 
in that unlucky moment had not a sudden diver- 
sion occurred, it is impossible to say. 

But at that instant Patty uttered a little scream 
and seized his arm. 

“ Oh ! oh ! oh ! ” she cried piteously, pointing 
to his head. “He has been hurt. He was thrown 


A MOONLIGHT INTRODUCTION. 


8l 


against the fence. His head is all bleeding. And 
we keeping him here talking in this way. Ah ! 
see how pale he is ! ” 

“Oh,” said Gervaise, glad to be able to 
say anything, “I — I don’t think the cut is 
much. I haven’t felt it until this moment. Never- 
theless,” he add«d suddenly, seeing an opportunity 
for the present, at least, to escape from his em- 
barrassing position, “ I think I do feel a trifle dizzy 
and — and confused. I think I would like to lie 
down, if it is quite convenient. 

“Of course you shall, my poor boy,” Madam 
Brenshaw declared. “ You shall go to bed at 
once and not have to say another word to-night. 
But ought you not to have a physician ? ” 

But Gervaise insisted that he needed nothing 
but cold water for his head and immediate rest ; 
so, preceded by old Ptolemy, the chief of the family 
servants, and followed by many looks and words 
of anxious commiseration from his aunt and 
cousins, he presently took his way up-stairs, with 
something the feelings of a condemned criminal, 
yet of a criminal for a while reprieved. 


CHAPTER IV. 


A SUNDAY MORNING BREAKFAST. 

G ERVAISE, once in his room and no longer 
in the presence of the aunt who was so 
dreadful to him, had been able to put away for a 
time the difficulties of his position ; and being 
tired and beginning to feel indeed some ill effects 
from the blow upon his head (although it was not 
a serious matter), he had gone at once to bed and 
slept soundly the night through. 

When he awoke in the morning the sun was 
shining brightly. He opened his eyes and looked 
around, not at first remembering where he was. 
The room was a large and pleasant one, carpeted 
(as was the case with very few bedrooms in those 
days) and supplied with heavy mahogany furni- 
ture. The sight of his reefer’s jacket hanging 

over one of the chairs recalled to him the events 
82 


A SUNDAY MORNING BREAKFAST. 


83 


of the night before. Immediately he began 
laughing to himself. Of all the queer positions 
that he had ever gotten himself into, surely 
this was the queerest. Here he was — he, Ger- 
vaise Brenshaw of Virginia, as arrant a young 
rebel as was to be found in all the thirteen 
colonies — securely housed in the heart of the 
enemy’s city, comfortably ensconced in the best 
bedroom of his tory aunt, and taken by her, with- 
out any warrant from his own lips whatever, for 
his English cousin, the son of the head of the 
family, and an embryo baronet himself. He 
laughed again quite out loud as he thought of it. 
It seemed very funny to him this morning, though 
he had thought it a serious enough matter the 
night before. Things look differently to all of us 
perhaps when we awake in the morning, with vigor 
renewed and spirits restored and the sun shining 
in at the window. 

And what was he to do about it, now that 'he 
must go down-stairs again and face them all once 
more ? He asked himself the question to be 
sure ; but he asked it lightly enough and answered 


84 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


it as lightly. What was he to do about it? Well, 
where was the need of doing anything about it? 
If his aunt and cousins chose to think him some- 
body else, need he object ? He might let them 
think so — for a little while. It would be a harm- 
less joke enough and was likely to make his visit 
all the more entertaining both to them and to 
himself. Then came a knock at the door and 
Ptolemy’s voice outside informing him that break- 
fast would be ready in half an hour. 

“ All right,” Gervaise called out in reply. “ I 
will rise to the occasion.” 

He dressed himself leisurely, whistling all the 
while in contented mood and moving about the 
room and examining this or that article on its 
walls pr shelves that interested him. He went 
and stood at the window by and by, looking out on 
the lawn bright with the sunlight, inviting with 
long, cool shadows. And something about its 
peace and stillness seemed to strike him. 

“ Upon my word,” he said to himself, “ I had 
forgotten all about its being Sunday.” 

He stood there thoughtfully, not a little ashamed 


A SUNDAY MORNING BREAKFAST. 85 

of his forgetfulness, for he had been well taught 
at home. 

“ I do believe,” he mused presently, “ that 
Nature herself is different on Sunday mornings. 
There’s a sort of solemness and hush about 
everything that tells you it is Sunday, even if 
you didn’t know it. I never thought of it before, 
but I think I understand now what it means when 
we are told to remember the Sabbath day and 
keep it holy. It is holy already and we have only 
to keep it so by not doing anything wicked or unholy 
on that day, to break its holiness. Well,” he 
added, after a long pause, though the connection 
of his thought with what he had before been 
saying was sufficiently obvious, “ 1 don’t see 
that there is anything very wrong in letting them 
suppose I am cousin Gervaise from England, if 
they want to. It isn’t as though I wasn’t their 
cousin at all. And I can’t get myself turned out 
of doors just because of Aunt Brenshaw’s absurd 
prejudices. I can let it go just for a day or two, and 
then when she gets acquainted with me I will frankly 
tell her the truth and make her forgive me,” 


86 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


Gervaise had implicit confidence in his ability to 
make people forgive him his faults when they 
came to know him : a confidence, it may as 
well be said, that was not on the whole a mis- 
placed one. 

When he had completed his toilet he stood 
a moment contemplating his image in the glass. 
His borrowed costume seemed to fit him perfectly 
and was really a very becoming one. A jaunty 
blue ^'jacket with a broad, rolling collar and 
adorned with anchor buttons ; a white kerseymere 
waistcoat beneath ; blue breeches that stopped not 
at the knee after the land fashion of the time, but 
continued on and fell in flowing proportions about 
the shoe ; this was the general make-up of a 
midshipman of the navy of George the Third. 
Gervaise, viewing the reflection of himself thus 
attired, saluted it with complacent satisfaction. 

“ Good-morning to you. Master Gervaise Bren- 
shaw, son of Sir Gervaise Brenshaw, of Brenshaw 
Hall, County Cumberland, England, Midshipman 
in His Majesty’s Navy,” cried he gayly. “ I’m 
delighted to see you on this side of the water. 


SUNDAY MORNING BREAKFAST. 





























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A SUNDAY MORNING BREAKFAST. 


89 


You’re a very fair-looking sort of fellow, I must 
say — every inch an officer and heir to a baronetcy. 
There’s the breakfast bell this minute ! You will 
go down now and make yourself agreeable to your 
aunt and cousins. You need have no fears at all 
of their not liking you however. There’s nothing 
like a title and a King’s uniform to please the 
ladies.” 

He found his aunt and cousins waiting for him 
in the library below. Madame Brenshaw greeted 
him with a cordial, though stately, good-morning, 
and inquired after his health. The two girls too, 
looking deliciously cool and nice in their fresh 
morning gowns, advanced prettily to meet him and 
hoped he was feeling none the worse this morning 
for his last night’s adventure. He was here 
introduced, too, to the young ladies’ governess, 
Mrs. Eden, a quiet, refined person whom he felt 
sure he should like. They went at once out to a 
rear hall where Prayers were held — to which all 
the servants were summoned — and then passed 
into the dining-room for breakfast. 

“ It seems strange to have you here,” Madame 


90 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


Brenshaw said to our hero, as soon as they were 
seated. “ I am scarcely able as yet to realize 
that it is you : you came upon us so suddenly and 
unexpectedly last night, and then went off up- 
stairs so quickly. But we shall have opportunities 
to become well acquainted, I hope. You must be 
with us as much as your duties on shipboard will 
possibly permit. And there are a thousand ques- 
tions, to begin with, that I shall want to ask you, 
about Sir Gervaise, and Lady Brenshaw, and about 
the old home in England. It is many years now 
since I have seen them.” 

“ I am sure, my dear aunt,” Gervaise replied, as 
he helped himself to the fish Ptolemy at that 
moment brought him, “ I shall be glad to answer 
your questions to the best of my ability.” 

He bethought himself here, however, with some- 
thing of a tremor, that his ability in this direction 
would be extremely limited, and that he would 
have to depend largely upon what he could remem- 
ber of his father’s accounts of Brenshaw Hall and 
his relatives there. 

“ Yet I must not omit to thank you,” she contin- 


A SUNDAY MORNING BREAKFAST. 9 1 

ued, as she arranged the cups before her, “ for the 
noble service you did us last evening. Your 
cousins should not have been out so late ; and 
your arrival was most timely. It was a gallant act 
on your part ; just what might be expected from 
an officer of the King.” 

“ It is not what I should expect from some 
of them,” cried Patty energetically. “ Imagine 
Mr. Wigglesworth, for instance, throwing himself 
upon those men as cousin Gervaise did. He 
would have been more likely to climb up into 
a tree.” 

The Mr. Wigglesworth referred to was a young 
ensign of their acquaintance, who sometimes called 
at the house, and of whose soldierly qualities Miss 
Patty had not, it would seem, a particularly high 
opinion. 

“ I am glad, at any rate, that you were not 
seriously hurt,” his aunt went on, showing her dis- 
approval of Patty’s interruption by taking no 
notice of it. “ The cut upon your head is hardly 
to be seen this morning. But I have had some 
tea made. I thought it would be better for you 


92 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


this morning. Ptolemy ” — to the old negro who 
had replaced himself behind her chair — “ take 
Master Brenshaw this cup of tea.” 

“ I thank you, Aunt Brenshaw, but I don’t think 
I care for it this morning,” Gervaise said in some 
embarrassment. It was difficult, under the circum- 
stances, to decline ; but tea drinking was something 
which as a good American he could not possibly 
indulge in, not even to keep up his character as an 
English midshipman. He felt the need of explain- 
ing his refusal in some way however and did so 
readily enough. “ I have quite gotten out of the 
habit of drinking tea lately,” he said. “ As a gen- 
eral thing they give us such slops on board 
ship.” 

“ I suppose,” Patty remarked mischievously, 
“ that they dip the water up out of the river and 
give you that for tea. You know a large num- 
ber of tea chests were emptied into the harbor 
not very long ago.” 

“ That,” Madame Brenshaw severely declared, 
“ was an act of folly which is only equalled by the 
foolishness of those who, for political reasons. 


A SUNDAY MORNING BREAKFAST. 


93 


refuse to drink tea at all. They spite themselves 
more than they do the King.’ 

“ Oh, if you mean me, mamma,” said Patty pla- 
cidly, “/ don’t spite myself at all in refusing it. 1 
don’t like it, nowadays. It has too strong a taste, 
of injustice and oppression.” 

“ I am sorry to say,” Madame Brenshaw re- 
sumed to her nephew, with an air of apology, 

“ that your younger cousin is sorely lacking in 
those sentiments of loyalty and reverence for the 
King that would be proper in her. I fear, Eden,” 
— this to the governess — “ that Patty’s attention 
has not been sufficiently called to that portion of 
her ‘ duty towards her neighbor,’ which bids her 
honor and obey the civil authority, and submit 
herself to her lawful governors.” 

“ 1 am sure, Madame,” Mrs. Eden respectfully 
replied, “ that Miss Patty has been duly taught 
everything that the catechism has to say upon the 
subject.” 

“ By the way, cousin Gervaise,” Dolly here said 
to her cousin, with a view perhaps to changing the 
subject, “you have not told us yet just how it is 


94 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE, 

that you come to be here, and what ship you 
belong to.” 

“ Oh,” cried Patty, “ I do hope you belong to 
one of the big ships. It must be ever so much 
•nicer to sail in a big ship.” 

“ How would the Somerset suit you ? ” inquired 
Gervaise. 

He knew almost nothing about the ships in the 
harbor himself ; for that matter he did not know 
very much about any ships, but he took it for 
granted that his cousins were at least as ignorant 
as himself. 

The Somerset ? said Dolly. “Oh, yes; she 
is a large ship.” 

“ How many guns has she } ” Patty asked her 
cousin. 

“ Oh,” said he, “ I don’t know exactly ! A hun- 
dred or so, maybe ! ” 

“ A hundred ! ” exclaimed Dolly. “ Why, the 
papers said sixty-eight.” 

“ Well,” said Gervaise, “ perhaps you are right. 
I haven’t really counted ’em one by one.” 

“ Perhaps, too,” suggested Patty, laughing, 


A SUNDAY MORNING BREAKFAST, 


95 


‘‘some of them have gone off since they were 
counted.” 

“ But the Somerset has been over here ever so 
long,” Dolly continued reproachfully. “ Do you 
mean to say you have been with her all the time 
and not been to see us until now ? ” 

“ Why, no,” returned Gervaise in confusion. 
“You see — that is — well, I’ve only just joined 
her men, you know.” 

“ Your cousin came over, no doubt, with the 
re-enforcements that have just arrived,” Madame 
Brenshaw observed to Dolly. 

Gervaise smiled. He had read in the Worcester 

I 

paper of the arrival on the twenty-fifth of May of 
the Cerberus with the three English generals on 
board, and a fleet of transports. 

“ You see,” he explained jocosely, “ things 
were getting pretty serious over here, so His 
Majesty thought best to send over Howe and 
Clinton and Burgoyne and myself to take them in 
hand. You may depend upon it there will be 
something done now.” 

“ Oh, no doubt,” cried Patty. “ We have heard 


96 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


that the English generals brought their fishing- 
tackle with them, expecting to go fishing every day 
and catch a lot of fish.” 

“Why, Patty,” her sister remonstrated, “you 
know that these are the King’s best generals. It 
is hardly reasonable to suppose that they will not 
soon put an end to this trouble. General Bur- 
goyne has served in Portugal ; and everybody says 
he is a great soldier. You know what he said 
when the pncket met them as they were coming in 
and told them that the town was besieged : ‘ Let 

us get in there and we’ll soon find elbow-room ? ’ ” 

Dolly was thoroughly loyal herself and believed 
fully in the invincibility of the royal troops. 

“ He doesn’t seem to have found it yet,” retorted 
Patty. “ He seems to have made up his mind to 
stay here in town for a while and ride about the 
streets on horseback.” 

“We may be sure,” Madame Brenshaw here 
felt called upon to declare, “ that when the proper 
time arrives, something will be done. It is hardly 
probable that a mob of ill-armed, ignorant peas- 
antry can keep ten thousand disciplined troops 


A SUNDAY MORNING BREAKFAST. 


97 


shut up here any longer than they wish to 
remain.” 

“ I should think not ! ” exclaimed our hero, 
thinking that some decided expression from him- 
self had become necessary. 

“ Indeed ! ” rejoined Patty with flashing eyes, 
“ that remains to be seen, perhaps. It was only a 
few weeks ago that they were planning to make a 
sally and were frightened out of it by General 
Thomas with only seven hundred men — marching 
them round and round a hill at Roxbury until the 
English thought there were seven thousand.” 

“ An army that is obliged to resort to such 
means to deceive the enemy as to its force is cer- 
tainly not greatly to be feared,” observed Madame 
Brenshaw, with logic not entirely faultless. 

“They’ll find they can’t use their men over 
again that way when it comes to fighting,” asserted 
Gervaise looking at his cousin. 

He thought Patty’s rebel wrath exceedingly be- 
coming to her. 

“ I am sure at least,” she hotly rejoined, “ that 
every one of them would be willing to die a thou- 


98 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


sand times rather than submit to the wicked injus- 
tice of the King.” 

“ Patty,” her mother sternly admonished her, 
“ I must ask you not to speak of the King at all 
unless you can do so in decent and proper lan- 
guage. I am deeply mortified that our cousin 
from England should hear such sentiments in this 
house as those you have chosen to utter. Our 
branch of the house, I would have him believe, is 
a thoroughly loyal one.” 

“ Is it true, Aunt Brenshaw,” Gervaise asked, 
apropos of the allusion which her emphasis rather 
than her words seemed to make, “ what we have 
heard of the younger brother, that he is disposed 
to take sides with the colonies against the King?” 

“ Alas,” was the reply, “ I regret to say that it 
is but too true. Mr. Edward Brenshaw has from 
the first been notoriously active in every move- 
ment looking to a rupture between us and the 
mother-country.” 

“ But he would hardly be able to bear arms 
against us ? He was disabled, was he not, in the 
old French War ? ” 


A SUNDAY MORNING BREAKFAST. 


99 


“ Yes ; but he possesses wealth and influence, 
and can do even more harm with these.’* 

“Let me see,” pursued Gervaise, much inter- 
ested in the subject, “ he has a son, hasn’t he — of 
the same name as myself ? ” 

“ Yes } and of about the same age, if I remem- 
ber rightly. I have never seen him, nor do I care 
to. No doubt he has grown up imbued with the 
same seditious sentiments as his father. We really 
know little about them. There has been no cor- 
respondence between us for several years.” Then 
Madame Brenshaw changed her tone and the sub- 
ject. “ But we will not talk of them. Indeed I 
have thought it best to forbid the mention of your 
uncle’s name in this house : he can be nothing 
to us now, since he has renounced his allegiance 
to his sovereign. Let us speak rather of your 
home and family, of Sir Gervaise and your lady 
mother. We have always lived ’ ' the hope of 
seeing them; but your uncle Matthew’s health 
never permitted an ocean voyage, and since his 
death it has seemed more than ever impossible.” 
Then Madame Brenshaw launched forth into a 


100 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


series of questions as to the family in England 
and the affairs there — the answers to which shall 
not be given here since they were derived only 
from the family hearsay although they proved 
familiar to our hero. The conversation was joined 
in of course by the young ladies, and lasted, much 
to Gervaise’s discomfort, until the end of the 
meal. 

Nor will it be possible to dwell here upon the 
farther events of the day, interesting enough of 
themselves but not essential to the story, which 
must hasten on. Madame Brenshaw and Miss 
Dolly attended church in the morning ; but Ger« 
vaise, not deeming it prudent to appear at King’s 
Chapel (where most of the royal officers were in 
the habit of attending service) in his borrowed uni- 
form, pleaded the slight remnant of a headache as 
an excuse for remaining at home ; and Patty kindly 
stayed with him, reading aloud, to their mutual 
edification, a sermon of good old Bishop Andrews. 
The afternoon was spent very quietly within 
doors; and in the evening they sat together on 
the piazza until the moon arose. Gervaise began 


A SUNDAY MORNING BREAKFAST. 


lOI 


already to feel at home in the house and looked 
forward to his stay there with decided pleasure. 
The young people separated that night with an 
agreement to meet again in the lower hall at four 
o’clock the next morning in order to go out 
together to the top of Beacon Hill to see the sun 
rise. Patty laughingly declared that she knew she 
should have to come around to her cousin’s door 
to awake him ; but Gervaise insisted that he was 
able to wake himself at any given minute if he 
really wished to do so and that he was certain to 
be up in time. 


CHAPTER V. 


THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER AGAIN. 

EXT morning Gervaise did not awake of his 



-L ^ own accord. He was right in the midst 
of a truly horrible dream in which he thought his 
Aunt Brenshaw had discovered his real identity 
and was declaring her intention of giving him up to 
General Gage at once and having him hung as a 
spy, when he was aroused by a sharp knock at the 
door, and the peremptory summons of a female 
voice. At first he thought that Madame herself 
was really come to accuse him ; but presently he 
realized that it was only his cousin Patty awaking 
him, according to her promise. 

*‘Come, come, sir,” she cried. “There are 
only just fifteen minutes before sunrise. That 
gives seven for you to dress in and eight for us 
to get to the Hill. Do you hear.? ” 


102 


THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER AGAIN. 


103 


So Gervaise dressed himself as quickly as he 
could and went down. The tall clock on the 
landing of the stair pointed to a quarter after four. 
He found the young ladies sitting on the front 
steps, ready and waiting. Patty shook her finger 
at him. 

“Fie, cousin Gervaise,” she cried. “This is 
the way you wake yourself, is it ? I should like to 
know how you manage it on board ship.” 

“ They don’t get up so early as this on board 
ship,” yawned Gervaise. 

“ I suppose not. No doubt you all lie abed as 
late as you please. I am beginning to think that 
the King’s officers don’t do much except play at 
being soldiers and sailors. We were saying last 
night that you didn’t look half as salt and weath- 
erbeaten as we expected. And to think of your not 
knowing the number of guns on your own ship ! ” 

Miss Patty laughed out at him right merrily. 

“ Never mind about that now, Patty,” Dolly in- 
terposed anxiously. Dolly was the care-taker of 
the family. “ If we do not start at once the sun 
will rise before we get there.” 


104 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


“ True enough,” said Patty. “ The sun will not 
wait even for one of His Majesty’s midshipmen ” 
— with another saucy glance at our hero. 

It was a beautiful morning, or at least it gave 
promise of becoming such as soon as the rays of 
sun should come to touch its beauties into life and 
completeness. The air was still and cool as the 
night had left it, and delicious with the scents 
of June ; the dew glittered upon the grass ; the 
birds sang gladly in the treetops. Amid such a 
scene it was impossible for three young people, 
full of health and free from any care, not to be 
happy too. They laughed and talked and sang as 
they walked along — out the gate and down the 
street beneath the elms. They seemed to them- 
selves a part of the morning scene. 

The walk to the Hill was a short one, and they 
presently climbed its eastern ascent and arrived 
beside the beacon which crowned it, and from 
which it had its name. This beacon consisted of 
a tall mast firmly fixed in the earth, freely supplied 
with spokes by which to climb to its top where was 
placed a great iron skeleton basket or frame, to 


THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER AGAIN. 105 

hold a cask of pitch or tar which, visible far and 
wide, would when fired quickly convey an alarm 
to the surrounding country. Gervaise examined 
the structure with boyish interest, climbing half- 
way up the mast and from there getting a magnifi- 
cent view in every direction. From this elevated 
position he was able first to announce the actual 
appearance of the day-god of whose coming the 
rosy tints of sky and mist had already given sig- 
nal ; and then, descending to the ground, he 
joined the rest and they stood together watching 
with awe and delight that wondrous spectacle 
which occurs every day upon which no price is 
set, than which there is no sight in all heaven and 
earth more grand and beautiful, and yet which 
so few of us ever take the pains to witness. 

And while they watched, hardly speaking to one 
another save now and then to utter a word of ad- 
miration or to call attention to some particular 
beauty of the scene, suddenly from one of the war- 
ships in the harbor below came the dull boom of 
a sunrise gun ; then another and another ; and as 
they looked, to the peak of one tall mast and an- 


io6 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


Other that raised itself above the harbor-mists, a 
little ball of bunting shot up and then, quickly 
opening itself to the morning breeze, displayed 
the gorgeous ensign of England with its scarlet 
cross of St. George. 

“ Ah ! ” murmured Dolly in a subdued voice, 
“is it not a beautiful sight all together — first this 
magnificent sunrise and then, as though by way of 
salute to its glories, the guns and colors from the 
ships.” 

“ Humph ! ” declared her sister, whose enjoy- 
ment of the scene had been disturbed rather than 
enhanced by the^ntroduction of this human ele- 
ment, “ I think the sunrise would have done very 
well without the flags and noise and smoke. 
They seem to me very much like an impertinence 
at such a time.” Then she added with a look and 
tone that showed how strong, in spite of her youth, 
were her feelings in the matter, “ I wonder how 
long it will be before that proud ensign shall be 
lowered never to be raised again in this part of 
the world.” 

“ Hush, Patty,” whispered Dolly, casting an 



THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER AGAIN. 


07 


anxious glance at their cousin as if she feared that 
his feelings might be wounded by the utterance on 
her sister’s part of such disloyal sentiments. 

But Gervaise did not appear particularly sensi- 
tive on the subject. “ What an uncompromising 
little rebel you are, Patty,” he laughingly said. “ I 
hope you don’t mean to take up arms yourself, if 
it really comes to fighting.” 

“ I wish I could take up arms myself,” Patty 
avowed with emphasis. 

“ Then I should not want to meet you in battle. 
I should lay down mine instantly, and surrender 
without a word.” 

Patty did not seem to be in a jesting mood at 
the moment, so Gervaise turned away presently to 
look at the town about him, of which the best pos- 
sible idea could be gotten from the position they 
occupied. He took out his Map of Boston to help 
fix the different localities. After a moment Dolly 
came and looked over his shoulder. 

“ Why,” said she, “ you have a map of the town 
there, haven’t you } How nice ! Did you do it ? ” 

“ Why, no,” Gervaise answered, somewhat em- 


io8 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


barrassed, “ no, I can’t say I did exactly. It was 
done by another fellow, a — a midshipman.” This, 
to the best of his knowledge and belief, was the 
truth. “ I thought it might be useful to me in 
finding your house.” 

“Oh, is our house on it? Pray let me look. 
Why, isn’t it nice ? Here are all the streets. 
Let’s see, here is Beacon street and Tremont 
street and — yes, here is our house. You have 
marked it with a pencil, haven’t you ? ” 

“ Eh ?” said Gervaise. He took back the map 
and looked at it. “ Is that where your house is?” 
He looked at it a moment, and then gave it back. 
“ It is only an accidental mark,” said he care- 
lessly. 

“Cousin Gervaise,” here Patty called out to 
him from a short distance away. “ The mists have 
lifted now so that the hulls of the ships are quite 
plainly to be seen. I want you to come and point 
me out the Somerset.'^ 

Gervaise did not seem in any haste to respond 
to this call. He took his map again from Dolly, 
who had done with it, and appeared to be very 


THE MORNING MEETING ON BEACON HILL. 






I 


I 




THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER AGAIN. 


Ill 


busy rolling it up. But Patty called him again, 
and he was obliged to go to her. 

“ Which is the Somersets ” Patty repeated. 

Oh, bother the Somerset ! said Gervaise 
lightly. “ I don’t want to see or hear of the 
Somerset again, while I am ashore ! ” 

“ Well, but / want to see her,” persisted Patty. 
“ Won’t you point her out to me, please ? ” 

** I don’t know that I can tell her myself,” re- 
plied Gervaise — without taking the trouble to look, 
however. “ Ships all look alike, you know, a little 
way off.” 

“ But I should think a sailor ought to know his 
own ship as far as he could see her,” said Patty 
positively. 

“ Not if she is too far away,” pronounced Ger- 
vaise. 

“ Then she isn’t among any of these that we can 
see plainly ? ” 

Gervaise threw a careless glance over the ves- 
sels closer at hand. “ No,” said he, shaking his 
head, “ I don’t see any ship near us that looks to 
me like the Somerset'^ 


II2 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


“ Well, then,” said Patty, “ tell me the names of 
some of these. What one is that — that big one 
off there ? ” She pointed toward one of the lar- 
gest, that lay over near the Charlestown ferry, 
above whose quarter-deck a small blue-and-white 
flag was flying. 

“That?” said Gervaise gravely, “that is the 
Polyhedron'-' 

“ The Polyhedron I ” repeated Patty discontent- 
edly. She was ^not sufficiently versed in mathe- 
matics to know what the word really meant, but it 
did not sound quite right to her. “ Well ; and 
what is that flag for — that blue-and-white one 
over the cabin ? ” 

“ Why,” answered Gervaise, not having the re- 
motest idea as to the true meaning of the flag, and 
again taking refuge behind an absurdity, “ that is 
a signal that the captain has turned over and gone 
to sleep again, and doesn’t wish to be disturbed 
for another half hour.” 

Patty pouted. This was too much even for her 
ignorance. “ Now, cousin Gervaise,” said she 
reproachfully, “ you ought not to poke fun at me 


THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER AGAIN. 


”3 


just because I am a girl. I want to know about 
them. You ought to tell me when I ask you. 
That is,” she added resentfully, “if you know 
yourself. I declare, I don’t believe you do know. 
I don’t think you are much of a sailor myself. 
You don’t seem to know very much about your 
profession.” She tossed her head and looked 
away again at the fleet. 

But Dolly, who had drawn near, now came to 
the rescue. She also was very much interested 
in the subject of the ships in the fleet. 

“ Please^ cousin Gervaise, do tell us the names 
of some of the ships,” she entreated him. “ Of 
course you must know about them.” 

“Oh,” said Gervaise, “if it’s a catalogue of 
ships you want, you must go to Homer.” 

“ No ; but we want to know a few of them. Is 
the Cerberus anywhere in sight? And which is 
the Glasgow 1 — and the Symmetry t — and the 
Falcon /We have read the names of ever so many 
of them in the papers, but have never had anybody 
to point them out to us.” 

“I am acquainted with Captain Linzee of the 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


II4 

Falcon^^^ said Patty. “ I met him one evening at 
Mr. Byles’s. He was very pleasant, too, and said 
he should be glad to see me on board his vessel.” 

“ No doubt he would answer all your questions 
for you,” Gervaise suggested. 

“ No doubt he would. And being a captain in- 
stead of a midshipman, I should have some con- 
fidence in what he told me. He will tell me which 
the Somerset is, I am sure.” 

“ I beg your pardon ; but did you wish to know 
which was the Somerset^ man-o’-war ? ” 

This last question, uttered by a strange voice 
close behind them, caused all three of the young 
people to turn about in astonishment since not 
one of them had had the faintest suspicion of the 
vicinity of another person. And the astonishment 
of one of the three. Master Gervaise, instantly 
grew to wonder — wonder almost amounting to a 
disbelief in the evidence of his own senses — as 
his eyes fell upon the newcomer. 

A young gentleman of their own age, well made 
and well dressed, with a fine, deeply tanned face 
rather grave in its expression save that the eyes 


THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER AGAIN. TI5 

seemed full of laughing humor, was standing there, 
hat in hand, bowing to the young ladies. What 
Gervaise saw more than his cousins and that so 
excited his wonder was that this face was the face 
of the strange young man whom he had met at the 
Sign of the Golden Ball, and that the clothes he 
wore — laced hat, coat of blue velvet, scarlet waist- 
coat, and breeches — were the very clothes that he 
himself Ifad discarded two nights before in the boat 
on the river. He knew the person instantly, in 
spite of his altered and unlooked-for appearance; 
and he knew the clothes too, with perfect cer- 
tainty, as one is apt to know one’s own clothes 
that one has worn. 

The two girls, thus unexpectedly accosted by 
an entire stranger, drew back a little and — Dolly 
haughtily, her sister with half-concealed curiosity — 
regarded the speaker. Amazement for the moment 
deprived our hero of the power of speech. The 
stranger himself, however, seemed perfectly master 
of himself and the situation. 

“ I beg your pardon,” he said again, in a pleas- 
ant voice just deepening into manliness, “but I 


Il6 A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 

chanced to overhear your last words; and as I 
know the Somerset well, I could do no less than 
volunteer the information you seemed to desire. 
Permit me to tell you that the vessel here away — 
she with the triple tier of guns — is the Somerset.^' 
His manner was so extremely respectful and 
courteous that it was impossible for the young 
ladies to be offended ; and Patty was even sur- 
prised into a reply by what seemed to be an error 
in his honestly meant statement. 

“Are you not mistaken, sir?” said she modestly. 
“ That ship, we have been told, is the Polyhedron^ 
“ The Polyhedron ? ” repeated the stranger, 
wrinkling his brow. “There is no such ship in 
His Majesty’s navy — certainly none such on this 
station. The ship yonder is the Somerset. I know 
her as well as you know the house you live in.” 

“O,” Patty ardently insisted, quite heedless of 
her sister’s restraining hand laid upon her shoulder, 
“ O, but it can't be the Somerset I This gentleman 
here is a midshipman on board the Somerset. And 
he says it is the Polyhedron." 

“ Ah ! ” murmured the stranger, glancing oddly 


THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER AGAIN. II7 

at Gervaise. “That alters the case. I can hardly 
expect my opinion in the matter to stand against 
that of midshipman on board the Somerset' If 
this gentleman says yonder vessel is the Poly- 
hedron ” — 

“ Of course I say it is the Polyhedron /” our hero 
here savagely interrupted, having at length recov- 
ered his power of speech. He was filled with 
wrath at the amazing effrontery of this person in 
thus venturing to address himself and his cousins ; 
yet at the same time, not knowing who he was, 
and remembering that he was aware of his own 
(Gervaise’s) real identity, he realized that there 
might be some danger to himself in the presence 
of the stranger here. Nevertheless, in the matter 
of the vessel’s name, with a certain grim humor he 
made up his mind to defend his absurdity. “ Of 
course I say it is the Polyhedron^" he declared. 

The stranger turned and took another look at 
the vessel. 

“ Ah ! ” said he, with perfect seriousness, “ I 
perceive now that I was mistaken. The vessel 
yonder is the Polyhedron." 


Il8 A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 

“But,” objected Patty, not comprehending so 
sudden and violent a conversion, “ you just said 
that there was no such ship as the Polyhedron'' 

The stranger bowed gravely. “ I beg leave 
then to correct myself,” said he. “Of course a 
‘ midshipman on board the Somerset ’ must know more 
about it than a mere civilian.” He glanced at his 
own apparel. 

“ I am sure,” Dolly now interposed, not under- 
standing all this at all, but keenly alive to the 
impropriety of standing and parleying in this way 
with a stranger, “I am sure it does not matter at 
all. We thank you, sir, for your trouble,” and, 
with a slight inclination of the head, she was for 
drawing her sister away. 

But Patty was not quite ready to go — not until 
she had asked one or two more questions. 

“ Perhaps,” she said to the stranger, “ since 
you have professed to know something of these 
matters, you can tell us what is the mean- 
ing of that blue-and-white flag over the vessel’s 
stern ? ” 

“Certainly,” returned he courteously. “That 


THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER AGAIN. II9 

is the flag of Admiral Graves, and shows that he 
has taken up his quarters on board that ship.” 

“ Indeed ! ” Patty looked around at Gervaise 
with an air of triumph. “That is not exactly 
what this gentleman has told us. He said it 
meant that the captain was taking another nap, 
and did not wish to be disturbed.” 

“ In that case,” said the stranger instantly, “ I 
fear I have been again mistaken. We civilians 
are by no means to be depended upon in such 
things. The gentleman clearly is right, now I 
think of it. Indeed, if you will look closely, no 
doubt you will see that the men on deck are all 
going about on tiptoe for fear of waking the cap- 
tain.” 

Patty looked from one young man to the other. 
Gervaise was gnawing his lips, fierce with inward 
rage ; the stranger’s face was perfectly calm and 
serious save for the laughter in his eyes. The 
girl understood well enough now that each of them 
had, so to speak, been making sport of her. But 
she was vaguely aware also that there was some- 
thing in their words and actions behind this — 


120 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


which she could not understand at all and which 
puzzled her greatly. She swept the stranger a 
majestic courtesy. 

“ I, too, thank you for the valuable information 
you have given us,” said she. 

“ You are quite welcome to it, such as it is,” was 
the imperturbable response. “ And in return for 
it, if I may detain you a single moment, I would 
like, if you will allow me, to ask a bit of informa- 
tion for myself.” He seemed to address himself 
to both the girls. “ If I am not mistaken, I have 
the honor to speak to the daughters of Madame 
Brenshaw. If that lady is at home to-day, I pur- 
pose to pay my respects to her a little later in the 
morning. May I ask if I am likely to find her ? ” 

“ This is too much ! ” Gervaise at this point broke 
in, unable to restrain himself longer. “ Dolly, Patty, 
go on, will you, please, down the hill. I have a 
word to say in private to this gentleman — after 
which I will join you.” 

Then, as the girls obeyed him and walked away, 
he turned on the stranger. “ Who are you ? ” he 
demanded. “ And what do you mean by this ? ” 


THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER AGAIN. 


I2I 


“ Wall,” answered the other, suddenly relapsing 
into the absurd Yankee accent which Gervaise had 
heard him use at their last meeting. “ My name 
is Jedediah Ichabod Iwang'' — he gave to the last 
name an especially nasal intonation — “ and 1 
don’t mean nothin’ in partic’ler.” 

“You seem to change your manner of speech to 
suit your convenience,” said Gervaise, with a curl 
of the lip. 

“Yes — as some people change their clothes.” 
His mocking glance falling upon our hero’s uni- 
form. 

“ I am not the only one, it seems, who wears 
other people’s clothes,” Gervaise retorted, eying 
his owm garments and thinking how well they 
fitted the other. 

“ Oh, I had to take what was left, of course.” 

“ Then this uniform I have on belongs to you, 
does it ” 

“Well, yes; but it is entirely at your service so 
long as you choose to wear it. Meanwhile, you 
must excuse me if I claim in return the use of my 
present apparel. It is rather more elegant, per- 


122 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


haps, than that to which I have been accustomed ; 
but I will try and take good care of it.” 

“ At any rate,” observed our hero with an air of 
ending the interview, “I will thank you to keep 
your place, whatever that is, and not intrude your- 
self upon ladies of whom I have the honor to be in 
charge. As for what you said about paying your 
respects to Madame Brenshaw, I cannot suppose 
that you really intend anything of the sort. At 
any rate, you will do so at your peril. You can- 
not possibly have any business with the lady.” 

“ Indeed ! ” was the cool response. “ And what 
if I conceived it my duty to wait upon her and 
inform her that the young gentleman who is being 
entertained beneath her roof — Master Gervaise 
Brenshaw of Virginia — has no right to the uni- 
form he wears ? ” 


CHAPTER VI. 


THE TWO ARRIVALS. 

T ATER that morning — about the middle of 
^ the forenoon — the ladies of the house, 
according to custom at that season, were gathered 
together on the south piazza where at its front end 
it was shaded from the sun. Eden was reading to 
them from a book — on this occasion Sterne’s Sen- 
timental Journey; Madame Brenshaw was listening 
with closed eyes ; Dolly was conscientiously at work 
upon some plain sewing ; and Patty had a piece of 
fancy-work in her hands. Gervaise, who had been 
out about the stables looking at the horses and 
examining things in general, came along by and 
by and sat himself quietly down by them on the 
step. Before long, however, he interrupted the 
reading by a sudden, violent exclamation. Every- 
body looked up. 


123 


124 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


“ Ah ! ” Patty spoke up. “ Here he is now. I 
thought he would come.” 

A young gentleman of good appearance — the 
mysterious stranger of their morning walk — was 
coming up the path from the front gate. He walked 
easily along with an air of already feeling himself 
quite at home. At the terrace steps, seeing the 
group on the piazza, he turned off across the 
grass and presently halted before them, taking off 
his laced hat and bowing low his powdered head. 

“ I presume,” he said, raising his eyes again and 
addressing himself to the lady of the house with 
great respect, “ that I have the honor of speaking 
to Madame Brenshaw? ” 

Madame Brenshaw thus accosted arose from her 
chair and by a stately inclination of the head ac- 
knowledged the correctness of the stranger’s pre- 
sumption. She was visibly impressed by his appear- 
ance and manner. For the rest of them, Dolly 
looked a little distressed, Patty eager, Eden prop- 
erly indifferent, and Gervaise angry and defiant. 

“ I humbly beg your pardon, Madame,” the vis- 
itor went on with perfect self-possession, “ for what 


THE TWO ARRIVALS. 


125 


may at first seem like an intrusion ; yet I cannot 
permit myself to doubt that my name and position, 
when known to you, will secure for me a generous 
welcome at the hands of a lady so hospitable and 
loyal as you are known to be. Before I tell you 
who I am, however, and explain my presence here, 
I would like, if you would kindly allow it, to ask a 
single question ” 

Madame Brenshaw listened graciously to this 
elaborate speech, and, by no means displeased by 
the allusion to her hospitality and loyalty, bowed 
her head again at its close in assent to the request. 

I would like to ask, then,” the young man con- 
tinued, “ with all respect, and for reasons which I do 
assure you are good ones, who this gentleman may 
be.” He gravely bowed in Gervaise’s direction. 

Gervaise himself flushed hotly at this pointed 
question — which, he could not doubt, was asked 
with the full intention of exposing his false posi- 
tion — and felt that his hour was come. This per- 
son knew who he really was and meant to tell what 
he knew. He had just time to realize this when 
he heard Madame Brenshaw replying: 


126 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


“ Why/^ said she, showing some surprise, surely 
this is a strange request. Nevertheless, I know 
not why I should hesitate to tell you that this is 
our nephew and cousin, Master Gervaise Brenshaw 
of Brenshaw Hall in England.” 

The imperturbable young stranger bowed. 

“ Thanks, Madame,” he said calmly. “ I may now 
tell you who I myself am. I also may claim the 
title of nephew and cousin here. This gentleman 
is, as you tell me, Gervaise Brenshaw of England, 
the son of Sir Gervaise Brenshaw, then / am — 
Gervaise Brenshaw of Virginia, the son of Mr. 
Edward Brenshaw.” 

At this entirely unexpected and (to him at least) 
preposterous announcement, Gervaise gave utter- 
ance to an astounded “ O-o-oh ! ” A moment be- 
fore he had felt only alarm at the prospect of a 
disclosure of his own assumption of the name and 
position of another: now he was suddenly filled 
with astonishment and indignation as he heard 
another coolly assume his name and position. 

The others, at the same time, were of course 
astonished also, though for a different reason and 


MERE WAS A DIFFICULTY OF WHICH GERVAISE HAD NEVER DREAMED. 



9 








THE TWO ARRIVALS. 


129 


in a different degree. Here was another cousin 
who had suddenly dropped down upon them as 
from the skies — their cousin from Virginia. The 
two girls uttered together a little cry of pleasure 
and surprise. Madame Brenshaw drew herself up 
haughtily : 

‘‘ I should have thought,’^ the latter said in freez- 
ing accents, “that the son of Edward Brenshaw 
would have thought twice before he presented him- 
self at a house which, though entirely at the service 
of all true servants of the King, can have no wel- 
come for His Majesty’s enemies.” 

The young man, with an air of the most respect- 
ful attention, seemed to wait for her to finish. 
Then he laid his hand upon his heart. 

“ Madame,” said he, “ I trust that you will believe 
me when I say that His Majesty has no more devoted 
and loyal servant in all his kingdom than he who 
stands before you. I would cheerfully lay down 
my life for him. Alas that I cannot say as much 
of him whom you have just named — the unhappy 
and misguided father. He, I cannot of course 
deny, has proved false to his highest earthly allegi- 


130 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


ance and openly arrayed himself on the side of 
treason and rebellion. Indeed he is with the 
rebel congress at this very moment plotting, as I 
have reason to believe” — here he cast a curious 
glance at Gervaise, all the while going gravely on 
— “ the raising of a rebel army for the purpose of 
placing at its head a certain friend and neighbor 
of his, Colonel George Washington of Mount Ver- 
non. But I am sure, Madame, that so just and 
magnanimous a lady as yourself will not condemn 
the son by reason of the father’s fault. Surely I 
shall not be disowned by you because of his dis- 
loyalty.” 

“ Ah, I understand, then,” exclaimed Madame 
Brenshaw; “that he has driven you from your 
home because you have persisted in remaining 
true to the king who is our common master — my 
poor, poor boy ! ” She took his hand and looked 
tenderly into his face. “ Then indeed have you 
done well in coming to me. You could have no 
surer title to welcome here than to have suffered 
for your loyalty’s sake. We are heartily glad to 
see you.” She turned to her daughters. “ Dolly, 


THE TWO ARRIVALS. 


13? 


Patty, welcome your cousin. Gervaise ” — to our 
hero — “this is your cousin too as well as ours. 
You also will be glad to take him by the hand 
since he proves to be worthy after all of the 
ancient name he bears — the same name as your 
own. Why, I shall hardly know how to distinguish 
you two, in speaking to you. I shall have to call 
you ‘ Sir Gervaise,’ ” she said to our hero. 

And so Gervaise who had stood and listened to 
all this, well nigh furious at hearing his father and 
himself thus coolly belied by this intolerable person, 
yet absolutely powerless to deny a word of what he 
said, found himself compelled now to step forward 
and take him by the hand and profess a cousinly 
delight at meeting him. He did so with ill grace 
enough though fortunately none but the stranger 
himself noticed it. The latter only seemed to enjoy 
the situation the more for the exasperation he had 
caused our hero, well aware, it would seem, that 
he had Gervaise in his power and not indisposed to 
amuse himself at the latter’s expense. 

“ I am right glad to find you here, my dear 
Cousin of England,” he cried, making up by the 


132 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


ardor of his own greeting for any lack of warmth 
observable in that of Gervaise. “And so you 
have entered the King’s navy, eh ? I don’t sup- 
pose they have made you an Admiral yet; though 
that will come by and by, no doubt. It is a noble 
profession that you have chosen. I always thought 
I should like it myself. And there are lots of 
questions I shall want to ask you about it. I shall 
expect serious answers, though; not such as you 
seemed to be giving our cousins when I came upon 
you this morning.” He laughed good humoredly 
at the allusion, a laugh in which the girls readUy 
joined ; and what had passed on the hill that morn- 
ing was recalled as a pleasant jest. 

After all had been said that was natural on the 
occasion of such a meeting, Gervaise managed to 
get the stranger (for “ stranger,” to our hero and 
the reader at least, he may still be supposed to be) 
alone with himself at the farther end of the piazza 
where he felt free to address him in a tone and 
with words more expressive of his real feelings 
toward him. 

“Well!” he began, “of all the impertinent, 


THE TWO ARRIVALS. 


133 


impudent, brazen assurance that ever I saw or 
heard of!” — And then he stopped short, allow- 
ing his look and tone to finish the sentence for 
him. 

“Well ? ” returned the other calmly, looking up 
at him with the same mocking light in his eye which 
Master Gervaise had already found so irritating. 
“ Go on, if you please. It certainly is not for lack 
of power to use vigorous English that you leave 
your sentence incomplete.” 

“What right have you to call yourself by my 
name and talk about my father and myself the 
way you have ? ” 

“Why, perhaps I thought that the name went 
with the clothes. If you will be so good as to 
remember, I am not the only person who has 
taken another’s name with that person’s clothes. 
You have set me the example.” 

“ That is a different matter, sir. If I choose to 
come here and pretend to my aunt and cousins that 
I am my English cousin, just by way of a harmless 
joke, in the family circle, that is a matter that con- 
cerns them and me but not you.” 


34 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


“ Perhaps not,” said the stranger coolly, though 
in a tone implying that the question admitted of 
doubt. 

“ What right have you in this house ? ” demanded 
Gervaise. 

“ I might answer that question by asking it of 
you. What right have you here ? ” 

“ The lady of the house is really my aunt,” de- 
clared Gervaise. 

“ Would she permit you to remain here if she 
knew that you were her American instead of her 
English nephew — holding the political opinions 
that you do ? ” 

There was of course but one answer to this ques- 
tion ; and Gervaise did not care to make it. In- 
deed he perceived that nothing was to be gained 
by displaying his anger to the stranger, who calmly 
kept his own temper and plainly had the best of 
the interview. He turned wrathfully away there- 
fore, and left him there — master of the situation. 

And whatever opinion Gervaise might have of the 
new comer, the latter had evidently made a most 
favorable impression upon the rest of the family — 


THE TWO ARRIVALS. 


135 


an impression which his conduct every moment 
seemed to deepen and confirm. To Madame Bren- 
shaw and the two girls he seemed the most charm- 
ing and agreeable cousin possible; and Gervaise 
was almost jealous of the kindly attentions they 
bestowed upon him, although there had been no 
lack of such attentions in his own case. The new 
comer was indeed bright, well bred, good tempered 
and thoroughly likeable. Gervaise himself could 
not but acknowledge something of this as he watched 
him. “ The Plagues take him ! ” our hero inwardly 
exclaimed: “He makes a better Gervaise Brenshaw 
of Virginia than I would myself. If it wasn’t for 
the impertinence of his being here at all and the 
provoking way in which he looks at me when he is 
talking in my name — as much as to say, ‘ I know 
you don’t like it ; but let’s see you help yourself ’ — 
I believe I should like him. I wonder who he can 
be any way. After all, there’s no great harm in 
his being here so long as he behaves himself.” 

Four such young people as these could not at any 
rate be thus thrown together in a pleasant house 
without enjoying themselves. There was a great 


136 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


deal of merry conversation at dinner over which 
neither political nor other differences were per- 
mitted to cast any serious shadows ; even between 
Master Gervaise and the unaccountable stranger a 
sort of truce seeming gradually to establish itself 
under whose tacitly understood terms they out- 
wardly kept up their character as cousins. 

A somewhat extraordinary incident, occuring on 
the afternoon of this same day, served still farther 
to establish an understanding between the two 
young men, inspiring our hero as it did with a 
certain amount of admiration and even gratitude 
toward the stranger for the readiness and skill 
with which, when Gervaise himself was completely 
at a loss, he extricated them both from a serious 
dilemma. 

The four young people had strolled out together 
after dinner, down behind the house, by and by 
seating themselves upon some rocks beside a brook 
that crossed the estate. They had arranged them- 
selves into pairs — by that natural instinct that 
knows so well how to put two and two together — 
Dolly talking pleasantly with her supposed Vir- 


THE TWO ARRIVALS. 


137 


ginian cousin, and Patty and Gervaise, a little way 
off, occupied once more in a political dispute which 
Gervaise, deriving vast enjoyment from his cous- 
in’s spirited and unflagging defence of her coun- 
try’s cause, had purposely provoked. 

“ It is dreadful to be shut up in this way,” Patty 
had been saying. “But really we can go nowhere. 
I’m afraid you and Cousin Gervaise from Virginia 
won’t very much enjoy being here with us.” 

“ Can’t we get out the horses and go horse- 
back ? ” Gervaise suggested. 

“ There is no pleasure in riding,” Patty answered. 
“ We can’t go out into the country at all. One can’t 
ride half a mile in any direction without being 
stopped by a British sentry and ordered to turn 
back.” 

“ Well, why can’t we go out for a walk about 
town ? ” 

“ Yes ; and be stared at at every comer by a 
knot of insolent English officers with nothing bet- 
ter to do. I, for one, prefer to stay home for the 
present.” 

“ It is all the fault of your own country people,” 


138 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


asserted Gervaise. “ It is they who have shut us 
up here.” 

“ Indeed it is not their fault ! They have a 
right to defend their own country and make war 
upon invaders. It is the fault of the English. 
And for my part I wish they were all in Halifax ! ” 
It would no doubt have afforded Miss Patty a 
deal of satisfaction at that moment could she have 
known that on the seventeenth of March following 
the British army would embark bag and baggage 
for the port she wanted. 

A high wall of solid masonry bounded the Bren- 
shaw place in the rear. In this wall, close by where 
the young people sat, a small wicket door or gate 
opened into a lane that ran past outside. It was 
just as Miss Patty delivered herself of the vigorous 
sentiment last above written that this door — not 
always locked — suddenly swung back and there 
appeared in the opening a certain personage as yet 
but little known to the reader, but deserving of 
farther acquaintance — Mr. Pompey Trim, body- 
servant to the hero of this story. The reader, who 
last saw him at Cambridge, will not be more sur- 


THE TWO ARRIVALS. 


139 

prised at his appearance now than was his young 
master who had until this moment supposed him 
safely lodged and cared for at Inman’s Farm. 

The negro closed the door behind him and then, 
seeing the group and catching sight of Gervaise, 
came toward them. He carried upon his shoulders 
his master’s large valise beneath whose weight he 
bent wearily. He was seen as he drew near to 
have a terrified and hunted look. His cap was 
gone, his smart livery torn and soiled, and his eyes 
rolled wildly in his head. He marched straight up 
to our hero and deposited his burden at his feet. 

“Oh, Mars’ Jarvy, Mars’ Jarvy,” he broke forth 
in tremulous, tearful accents. “ Bress de good 
Lord I foun’ yer at lars ! I nebber see sech a 
a terrorbul, ridicerlous country as dis yere in all 
my bawn days. I’se been inquired into an’ swore 
at an’ cuffed about an’ molested an’ drownded an’ 
killed outrighteous more’n forty times, sence I seed 
yer, jes’ ’cause I wanted ter cross one single little 
bit o’ nasty, miserbul ribber ter git ter my mars’r 
an’ bring him his wardrobe. I wisht I was back in 
ol’ Birginny a t’ousand times. I t’ought I’d nebber 


140 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


see yer agin, shuah ! ” And with that the simple 
black all at once dropped down on his knees before 
his young master and clasping him by the legs fell 
to moaning and sobbing in a manner that would 
have been touching save that it was beyond all 
reason and irresistibly comical. 

Gervaise stood looking down at him in utter 
wretchedness and despair. Here was a difficulty 
of which he had never dreamed and out of which 
he saw no way at all. It was hardly possible that 
he should deny himself to his own servant and face 
out the situation. The frolic joke which he had 
so foolishly sought to practice was certainly now to 
end. He felt the flush of shame and mortification 
at the consequences to follow mounting to his 
cheek beforehand. His disgrace seemed certain. 

But at that^instant help came to him from an 
unlooked-for quarter. 

“ Why, Pomp, you rascal,” suddenly spoke up 
the stranger, “ what in the name of Nebuchadnez- 
zar is the matter with you ? Are you crazy ? Let 
go that gentleman’s knees and get up and come 
here this minute. Do you hear, sir ! ” 


THE TWO ARRIVALS. 


141 

Gervaise turned to the speaker in bewilderment ; 
but receiving from him a swift, expressive glance, 
he comprehended something of his intention and 
made an effort to regain his own self-possession. 
The two girls were looking on in wonder, able to 
make nothing at all of what was taking place. The 
negro, hearing himself thus peremptorily addressed, 
raised his head with an air of stupid interrogation. 

“Why, Pomp, my lad,” the stranger continued 
in a more kindly tone, stepping toward him, “ what 
in the world is the matter ? Why ” — he looked up 
at the girls — “this is the queerest thing I ever 
heard of. The boy appears to have had his head 
turned by what he has been through. Pomp, look 
up here ! Don’t you know your own master ? Let 
go, I say, and get up.” 

Gervaise had now fully possessed himself of the 
other’s idea ; and audacious as it seemed to him, 
hope straightway rekindled itself in his breast and 
he entered at once into the spirit of the plan. 

“Yes, my fine fellow,” he in turn addressed the 
prostrate black, “ if it is all the same to you, I 
would prefer that you bestow your embraces upon 


42 


k DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


the person who you see is entitled to them.” He 
disengaged himself from the now relaxed hold of 
the negro and turned to the stranger. “Who is 
this individual, Cousin Gervaise.? One of your 
plantation negroes ? Have you so many of them, 
then, that they don’t know you when they see you ? ” 

All this — the tone of authority on the part of 
the stranger, the drawing back of his master, the 
words and manner of both — could not but have 
their effect upon the negro, though he was as yet 
far from comprehending what they signified. He 
slowly rose to his feet and stood rolling his eyes 
from one young man to the other in perplexity and 
distress. 

“ You don’t seem to know which is your master,” 
Gervaise said to him by way of farther aiding his 
comprehension. “There is your master.” He 
pointed to the stranger. 

At this point poor Pompey suddenly uttered a 
howl of grief and dismay. 

“O, Mars’ Jarvy, Mars’ Jarvy,” he cried. “ Yer 
don’ mean t’ tell me yer done gone an’ so/’ yer boy 
Pomp, do yer ? — who was brought up wif’ yer ’n’ ’s 


THE TWO ARRIVALS. 


143 


follered yer roun’ ebber sense bof of us wore pet- 
tercuts.” 

“True as I live,” said Gervaise, shaking his 
head soberly, “he don’t know his master there!” 

“ Nonsense I ” exclaimed the stranger. “ I don’t 
believe it. At any rate. I’ll see if I can’t bring him 
to his senses.” He laid his hand roughly on the 
negro’s shoulder. “ Now, Sirrah,” said he sternly, 
“ look me in the face. Do you mean to say that 
you don’t know me ? Look at this hat and coat that 
I have on. Do you remember ever to have put a 
brush to them } ” 

The negro gazed in growing bewilderment into 
the face of him who thus addressed him ; then at 
the clothes he wore ; then at Gervaise himself, seem- 
ing now to first perceive the change in the latter’s 
dress. And his eyes grew bigger and whiter. 

“ Whose coat is this that I have on ? ” pursued 
the stranger fiercely, tightening his hold upon the 
lad’s shoulder and giving him a shake. “Answer 
me that.” 

“He am my Mars’ Jarvy’s coat, shuah ’nuff,” 
replied the negro, his teeth beginning to chatter. 


144 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


“And this hat and waistcoat and breeches — 
aren’t they 'your Mars’ Jarvy’s too? And didn’t 
your Mars’ Jarvy bring you with him from Virginia 
to Philadelphia and from Philadelphia up here? 
And didn’t we stop at the Golden Ball tavern, going 
on Saturday to Cambridge, where you were left in 
charge of the horses ? ” 

“ Gracious, Mars’r,” uttered the negro scratching 
his woolly head, completely overcome by this array 
of facts hurled at him with such frowning force and 
emphasized by another vigorous shake. “ I sur- 
mise dat you is right, sah. You mus’ be my Mars’ 
Jarvy, shuah ’nuff.” He pondered the fact a mo- 
ment longer and at length seemed fully to accept 
it. Then he added mournfully : “ An’ ef dat’s de 
case, den you is right w’at you said jes’ now. Po’ 
Pomp ’s done gone crazy. W’at he’s been froo ’s 
done turned his po’ head. Well, I don’ know’s I 
wonder much, considerin’ de ’speriences dat’s hap- 
pened to me. I’m s’prised dat I got sense ’nuff lef’ 
ter know dat I los* my senses. But yer’ll le’me stay 
wif yer, now I’se got here, Mars’ Jarvy?” He 
looked up at his new master appealingly. “ I t’ought 


THE TWO ARRIVALS. 


US 

you’d need yer things so I follered ye here to yer 
aunt’s to bring ’em. I’se hed a hard time ’nuff 
gitt’n’ here. I don’ b’lieve I sh’d ebber libe to 
git back ’gin.” 

“Well, yes,” the stranger answered, “you may 
stay if you have really come to your senses again. 
That is, if they can take care of you here. How 
is that, cousin Dolly ? Can they make room for 
this boy at the servants’ quarters, think you ? ” 

Dolly assured him that the servant could of 
course easily be provided for; and Pompey was 
therefore sent on to the house with his valise, 
being instructed to report himself there to old 
Ptolemy. 

“What a very funny scene that was,” Dolly re- 
marked when he was gone. “ Do you really believe 
his head was turned ? ” 

“No,” answered the “master” whom Pompey 
had recognized, “ it is only that he is so horribly 
stupid. I’ve known him to make even worse blun- 
ders, a hundred times. No doubt, though, he is 
pretty well mixed up by what he has been through. 
I don’t see how he ever got over here from Cam- 


146 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


bridge. It was only by a fortunate chance that I 
got over myself ; and I was obliged to come off 
without my baggage. I’m glad he has brought it ; 
and I am glad to have him here, himself.” Then 
the young man introduced a new subject and this 
one of Pompey’s strange behavior seemed to be 
readily forgotten. 

Nevertheless Miss Patty, going up-stairs with her 
sister an hour later, stopped on the landing and 
said very solemnly : 

“ Dolly, there’s something about our cousins 


that I don’t understand.” 


CHAPTER VII. 


A MORNING ALARM, 


HE imperturbable stranger did not hesitate 



to avail himself of the extensive wardrobe 
which Pompey’s arrival had placed at his dis- 
posal, and in due time made his appearance 
below stairs arrayed in our hero’s very finest 
frills and most gorgeous waistcoat. Gervaise’s 
eyes flashed with a.ngry annoyance when he first 
saw him. 

“ You seem to have been helping yourself to my 
things,” said he. 

“ Yes,” answered the other, “ seeing that you 
couldn’t helpyourse/f” Then he added in a louder 
tone, for the young ladies were near by : “ And by 
the way, cousin Gervaise, if there is anything in 
my valise — any linen or anything — that you would 
like to borrow, it is quite at your service. You 


148 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


sailors don’t always carry your clothes-bag around 
with you, I believe.” 

Whereupon our hero bit his lip and turned away, 
frowning fiercely at a picture of his own great- 
grandfather that hung on the wall. It was very 
hard to be thus coolly invited to the use of his own 
property ; but, as the other had said, he could not 
“ help himself.” 

The young Virginian’s body-servant was also 
appropriated in the same comfortable manner; and 
Pompey found himself ordered around by the 
stranger in a way that went far to settle him in the 
belief that the latter really was and always had 
been his master, in spite of some difficulties that 
still lay in the way of his complete acceptance of 
the fact. The poor fellow moved about, obeying 
the commands of his new master, in a dazed, help- 
less sort of way, forever revolving in his mind the 
problem of the two Gervaises and dwelling pain- 
fully upon the question of his own soundness of 
mind. It was in this condition that Miss Patty 
encountered him in the upper hall on the morning 
after his arrival ; and she at once set about inter- 


A MORNING ALARM. 


149 


legating him with a view to the nearer comprehen- 
sion on her own part of that something about her 
cousins which she did not understand.” 

“ Pompey,” she began, “what was the meaning 
of that scene yesterday, down by the wall ?” 

The negro stopped and looked at her a moment 
and then shook his head : “ Don’ know, Missy, 
w’at um all do mean. Him head not quite cl’ar 
’nuff at dis presunt time f’r solvin’ dat ’nigma.” 

“ Didn’t you really know your own master when 
you first saw him ? ” 

“ Don’ know. Missy, w’edder him know um w’en 
fus’ see um. Know um dis mawnin’, though, w’en 
um frow he shoe at Pomp’s head.” 

“ Then you are certain this morning that you do 
know him ? ” 

“ Yes’m,” was the answer. “Berry <7/2sartain 
yist’day w’edder him know um or not, an’ mebbe 
berry onsartain termorrer; but berry sartain him 
know um to-day.” Pomp rubbed his woolly poll 
in the place where the missile he had mentioned 
might be supposed to have come in contact with 
it. 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


150 

“ I declare ! ” Patty exclaimed when, after sev- 
eral farther questions, she found herself unable to 
extract anything from the negro more satisfactory 
than this. “ How stupid you are ! I believe your 
head is turned.” 

“ Yes’m,” nodded he. 

“You seem* to have lost your wits entirely.” 
And then Miss Patty gave it up. 

The fear expressed by the young ladies that 
their two guests would find the time hanging 
heavily upon their hands, proved itself to be with- 
out foundation. There was not very much to do 
to be sure ; but visitors, at a pleasant place and in 
the summer season, do not perhaps care for very 
much to do ; and what with gathering about the 
harpsichord of mornings and singing at the top of 
their youthful voices “ The Three Blind Mice ” and 
“ Lucy Locket ” and a number of other songs and 
catches which were old even in that day, or sitting 
together upon the piazza, or playing ring-toss or 
some other primitive lawn game under the shady 
trees, or taking long naps after dinner, the warm, 
bright June days came and went quickly enough. 


A MORNING ALARM. 


15 


There had been some walks and rides outside also, 
after all — enough to give our hero some idea of 
the place and people ; though as a rule Master Ger- 
vaise preferred to remain at home, fearing that his 
borrowed uniform might excite attention in a town 
full of soldiers and sailors. One excursion had 
been talked about a great deal but not yet exe- 
cuted — a visit to the Somerset. Patty and Dolly 
had both said so much about going on board their 
cousin’s ship that Gervaise found himself obliged 
to promise to take them there “ as soon as it could 
be arranged.” The stranger — with a twinkle in 
his ‘eye that Gervaise but too well understood — 
had enthusiastically joined the young ladies in 
their petition. He wanted very much, he said, to 
see what life on board a man-of-war was like. 

The stranger not infrequently indulged himself 
in thus quizzing our hero in the latter’s supposed 
character of an English midshipman, asking him 
all sorts of questions about professional and home 
affairs, which the American found no little diffi- 
culty in answering before them all. Gervaise by 
no means relished this and presently took to carry- 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


152 

ing the war into the enemy’s country by mak- 
ing similar inquiries in return as to Virginia and 
the people and state of feeling there ; but he was 
constantly provoked — sometimes almost beyond 
self-control — by the reckless manner in which 
the other distorted the facts of the case, and he 
rarely felt himself to have had the best of it. 
Miss Patty watched these encounters with decided 
interest and was more than ever convinced that 
there was some mystery about the young men 
which it was worth her while, if possible, to 
fathom. As for Gervaise’s feeling toward the 
stranger, he could not help liking him more ‘and 
more, in spite of everything, as he saw more and 
more of him. 

Had there been far more of dulness, however, 
in the life of the younger inmates of the Bren- 
shaw mansion at this time than was really the 
case, an event was speedily to take place before 
their eyes which would afford them plenty of ex- 
citement. 

Very early Saturday morning Gervaise was awak- 
ened by the sound of cannon. He supposed at 


A MORNING ALARM. 


153 


first that it was only the morning gun-fire from the 
ships ; but, assured presently by its continuance 
that this could not be so and hearing a step in the 
hall, he jumped up and went to the door. There 
he saw the stranger, up and dressed, just turning 
to go up a flight of stairs that led to the floor 
above. The latter caught sight of our hero at the 
same time. 

“ All hands on deck ahoy ! ” he called back. 
“Watch and idlers turn up. Get on your things 
and come up on the roof. Don’t stop to hunt up 
your best shoe-buckles.” 

Gervaise dressed himself quickly and then, as- 
cending the stairs, climbed by a ladder which he 
there found to the cupola of the house and from 
thence, by an open scuttle, to the roof above — a 
small, square surface guarded by a balustrade. 

The morning was perfectly clear and the sun, 
just risen round and red, gave promise of a hot 
day. The place afforded a complete view of the 
harbor and the surrounding country. The stranger 
was standing, looking over northward toward the 
Charlestown peninsula. 


154 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


“What is the matter?” inquired Gervaise, tak- 
ing his place beside him. “ What is all the noise 
about ? ” Then, in the river below, between the 
two towns, he perceived a small vessel half hidden 
in smoke. “ Ah ! ” said he, “ there’s the ship 
that’s doing the firing. What is she firing at ? ” 
“That’s what I can’t just make out,” was the 
answer. “ It’s the Lively I should say by her 
position ; though she raises such a smoke that 
I can’t see very well. She seems to have gotten 
a spring upon her cable and hauled round so as 
to bring her guns to bear on the village yonder. 
Though what she is firing at I don’t see — unless 
it’s at the door of the meeting-house there. Per- 
haps Captain Bishop wants to make sure of its 
being open in time for to-morrow’s service. He’s 
a notorious church-goer.” Then he all at once 
uttered an exclamation of new discovery. “Great 
guns and bullets ! Look there — on the hill 
above. You may mast-head me for a week if 
those impudent countrymen haven’t come over 
there in the night and thrown up an earthwork in 
our very faces.” 


A MORNING ALARM. 


155 


Gervaise raised his eyes to the point indicated 
and perceived at once now the object of the ves- 
sel’s aim. On the lesser and nearer of the two 
elevations that diversified the surface of the penin- 
sula opposite, and just in the rear of Charlestown 
village itself, a long line of earthwork, six feet 
high and plainly enough to be seen when one 
looked directly at it, had been erected, behind 
which a mass of men, at least five hundred in 
number, could be seen at work with picks and 
spades, strengthening and finishing their fortifica- 
tion and apparently quite heedless of the fire 
from the ship. 

“ Our former friends must be extremely fond 
of digging,” the stranger continued, “ to get up so 
early in the morning and come way over here to do 
it — just for the fun of the thing, apparently.” He 
laughed contemptuously. “ I suppose they call 
that a redoubt. Bless their simple souls ! How 
long do they think it will take one of our men-of- 
war to scatter such a heap of dirt as that.^” 

“That one down there don’t seem to be scatter- 
ing it very fast,” observed Gervaise. 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


^56 

“That.? Pooh! That’s only a little twenty- 
gun transport. Just you wait until we bring 
around a ship of the line. I know one gun on 
board the Somerset that would make a hole up 
there the first time firing.” 

At this moment the smoke cleared away from 
about the transport and it became evident that for 
some reason she had ceased firing. 

“ They seem to have concluded to wait, accord- 
ing to yom* suggestion,” said Gervaise. 

“Yes; they’ve signalled her from the Somerset. 
The Admiral has stopped the firing. It’s too much 
like child’s play, pounding away at a pile of dirt 
like that. The Yankees ought to be taught their 
manners, though. The idea of their coming over and 
entrenching themselves under our very noses in 
that way ! But they’ve put themselves into a pretty 
box. I’d engaged, myself, with only half a dozen 
boats’ crews from the ships, to land at the cause- 
way yonder and march up and take ’em all alive, 
every mother’s son of ’em. They will throw down 
their arms and cry quarter quick enough at sight 
of a King’s uniform.” 


A MORNING ALARM. 


IS7 

“ Like they did at Concord and Lexington, I 
suppose/^ said Gervaise scornfully. 

“ Humph ! That was a different thing. They 
won’t have their stone walls and barns to hide be- 
hind now. They’ll never fight in an open field.” 

Gervaise frowned angrily. “ I don’t know what 
idea you Englishmen can have of us Americans,” 
said he. “ We are of the same blood as your- 
selves, and every whit as good. And you’ll find, 
when it comes to that, that we can fight just as 
well, too.” And he stood with clenched hands 
confronting his companion, apparently quite ready 
then and there to prove his own words. 

The other lad took no notice of his attitude 
however, nor indeed of his words. He was closely 
watching the ships below. 

“Ah!” said he, “there goes a boat from the 
Somerset. Old Gravy is coming ashore. Or rather, 
from the Polyhedron^'' he added, bestowing upon 
Gervaise a humorous glance — whereupon the latter 
laughed in spite of himself and felt his good 
humor restored. 

“Then that is the Somerset 1" asked Gervaise, 


158 A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 

referring to the larger vessel from which a boat 
was just putting off. “ I ought to know my own 
ship, you know.” 

“ I should think so ! ” laughed the stranger. 
“ And for that matter you ought to know some of 
the other ships too. The knowledge of naval 
affairs which you have so far displayed in my 
hearing has not been remarkable either for its ac- 
curacy or extent. Perhaps I had better post you 
a little. That vessel down there — the one that 
has done the firing — is, as I said, the Lively. 
This one here away is the Glasgoiv^ Captain Maltby. 
She carries twenty-four guns and a hundred and 
thirty men. This fellow to the left — she’s the 
same size as the Lively and they’re as near alike 
as the two flukes of an anchor — is the Symmetry. 
The one east of the flag-ship is the Falcon, Captain 
Linzee. And yonder lies the Cet^berns, on board 
which, our cousins inform me, you lately arrived. 
You must know Captain Chads, then ; and that 
she carries thirty-six guns and about two hundred 
men. The Somerset, Captain Edward Le Cras, 
carries sixty-eight guns and five hundred and 


A MORNING ALARM. 


159 


twenty men. The ships farther seaward I won’t 
bother you with. If you’ll only remember as much 
as I’ve told you and use it judiciously in your 
future conversation you will pass for a very pretty 
sailor. A few figures and names go a great way, 
you know.” 

“Yes; but I sha’n’t remember half those you 
have given me. Suppose you go through it again.” 

“ Very well. Or rather, I’ll catechise you a bit. 
Sit down on the rail there. We can watch your 
friends on the hill just as well. There — I’m the 
Board of Bigwigs up at the Admiralty office, and 
you are a volunteer midshipman being examined 
for your commission. We have to serve two years 
as volunteers before we’re regularly commissioned, 
you know. Now, sir — Ahem ! — Having passed 
(we’ll suppose) very creditably your examination in 
Navigation and Practical Seamanship we will go on 
to those matters which it will be chiefly necessary 
for you to know about in order that no doubts 
may remain in the minds of your fair cousins as to 
your professional fitness, etc. If I am not mis* 
taken, one of them already has her suspicions of 


i6o 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


you. Now, sir, attention. What craft is that over 
there to westward ? ” 

“ The GlasgoWy^ promptly responded the candi- 
date for a midshipman’s commission. 

“ How many guns ” 

“A hundred and thirty. Hold on, though. 
That’s the number of men. Sixty-eight.” 

“ Man alive ! It’s the Somerset that carries sixty- 
eight guns — your own ship. The Glasgow only 
has twenty-four. Can’t you tell something from 
her size ? What’s her captain’s name } ” 

The candidate shook his head. I’ll be smoth- 
ered if I can remember.” 

“William Maltby.” 

“ O, yes ; Captain Maltby.” 

“Who commanded the Cerberus in which you 
came over ? ” ^ 

“ Captain — Captain — ” 

“O, come now,” cried the rather discouraged 
examiner, “this ’ll never do. I can’t answer all 
my own questions. How many men have you on 
board the Somerset 

Gervaise scratched his head and then shook it 


AH. MY LAL) !” SAID THE COMMAN DER 1 N -CHIEF, “WHAT DOES THE FLAG SAY? 














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A MORNING ALARM. 163 

slowly. “ I give it up,” said he. “ Tm completely 
overpowered by numbers.” 

At that instant the examination was interrupted 
by a voice coming up through the opening in the 
roof. 

“Patty — Patty” — it was Dolly^s voice — 
where are you ? O, there you are ! ” 

The boys turned instantly; and there in the 
scuttle-way, visible only as to her head and shoul- 
ders, was Miss Patty herself, innocently looking 
up at them. How long she had been there it was 
impossible to say. Gervaise at once looked con- 
fused ; but his companion greeted her with entire 
self possession. 

“Good morning, cousin Patty,” said he. “So 
the sound of the guns has awakened you also?” 

“Yes,” answered the young lady as she as- 
cended the ladder a step or two farther. Dolly 
and I heard the firing and got up to see what it 
was. And I saw that the hatchway up here was 
open — I believe that is what you would call it on 
board your ship, Mr. Midshipman?” — here she 
gave Gervaise a look which quickly increased his 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


164 

confusion. — “So I thought I would come up here 
on deck. You’ll excuse my using such nautical 
language,” she added as with the aid of her sup- 
posed Virginian cousin’s hand she stepped out up- 
on the roof, “but your conversation seemed to be 
so very nautical as I came up that I somehow fell 
into the way of it myself.” She divided a curious 
glance between them. Then she called down the 
scuttle to her sister : “ Dolly, come up here — on the 
roof of the cupola.” 

She then turned toward the ships in the harbor. 
“I came up to see what the enemy were doing,” 
said she. • “What is the firing about?” 

“ O, nothing much,” the stranger answered her. 
“ A lot of your fellow citizens yonder have taken 
it into their heads to come out and play at war a 
little while this morning. And he pointed out 
to her the redoubt on the hill. 

Patty gazed at it in silence fora moment. Then 
she drew a long breath and her eyes kindled. 

“That doesn’t look to me at all like play,” she 
said. “ And unless I am mistaken the King’s troops 
will find it a serious matter before nightfall.” 


A MORNING ALARM. 


i6s 

Dolly, too, now made her appearance and the 
four remained for some time eagerly waiting for 
what might next take place. Nothing farther 
seemed to occur however and it was at length pro- 
posed that they all go out together — it yet lacked 
an hour of breakfast-time — and see what could 
be learned upon the streets. It had for some 
time been evident from the sounds which came up 
from below, the tread of hurrying feet, the beat of 
drums, the rumble of heavy wheels and the mur- 
mur of voices, that the British camp was aroused. 

Issuing from the gate and passing from the re- 
tired street on which the Brenshaw house stood to 
the more public thoroughfare near by, they found 
numbers of people abroad upon the same errand 
as themselves, no one of whom, however, seemed 
able to tell them more than they already knew. 
The excitement was presently increased by the 
sound of renewed and now much heavier firing; 
and taking the direction in which many others 
were moving, the party soon found themselves 
once more on the summit of the eminence which 
had been the scene of their meeting a few morn- 


i66 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


ings before. From this point the river and the 
heights beyond again came into full view ; and it 
was now seen that all the vessels in range had 
opened fire upon the redoubt, as indeed had also 
the battery of half a dozen guns which occupied 
the inferior elevation known as Copps Hill. Mean- 
while the band of provincials who had caused all 
this commotion were to be observed working stead- 
ily on, apparently indifferent to the storm of shot 
and shell that was rained upon them and which in- 
deed, so far as could be seen from the town, did 
them and their work very little harm. 

The people gathered on the hill — soldiers and 
citizens — viewed the spectacle with excited in- 
terest, some of them loudly ridiculing the temerity 
and folly of the provincials in thus openly defying 
the royal arms ; some awed and silent, greatly 
fearful of the consequences of the adventure — 
to their hardy countrymen if it should fail, to the 
town itself if it succeeded. Our young people 
moved about amid the throng, listening eagerly 
to what was said or talking quietly among them- 
selves ; two of them, as the reader is aware, heartily 


A MORNING ALARM. 


167 


sympathizing with the devoted band who occupied 
the opposite hill ; two as thoroughly concerned for 
the cause of Royalty. 

Presently a sudden murmur in the crowd and 
then a drawing back and making way among them 
on the eastern slope of the hill announced the 
approach of some new and, it would seem, impor- 
tant personage or personages ; and Gervaise, who 
with his friends was standing at that moment near 
the beacon, turned to see a group of British offi- 
cers slowly climbing the ascent, the three foremost 
of whom, it was evident from their dress and air, 
were of the highest rank. The lad’s abrupt excla- 
mation of “ Hillo ! Whom have we here, I should 
like to know ? ” caused the others to turn quickly 
in the direction of these newcomers. 

“ Why,” uttered Patty at once, “ it is General 
Gage — ‘ Governor and Commander-in-Chief in 
and over the Province of Massachusetts Bay,’ as 
he styles himself in his proclamations. And that 
is Lord Howe with him I’m quite sure; though 
I’ve only seen him once. The other — the short, 
stout gentleman — must be Sir Henry Clinton.” 


i68 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


Then she turned swiftly upon Gervaise as if all at 
once struck with a new thought : “ I should hardly 
have supposed that a midshipman of the fleet would 
have had to ask who such distinguished officers 
were, however — especially as he came over from 
England in the same ship with two of them.” 

“ O, yes,” rejoined Gervaise with tolerable 
readiness, “ I see who they are now. I haven’t set 
eyes on them since they landed, you know ; and 
you may be sure they did not look quite as distin- 
guished as they do now when they were on board 
ship.” 

There was no time to say more, for the officers, 
advancing with steady, dignified step and talking 
earnestly together, were now close at hand. Ger- 
vaise regarded them with eager interest, as a boy 
like him well might the chief generals of His 
Majesty’s army in America whom he now saw for 
the first time. Governor Gage, the same kindly, 
unpretentious gentleman who, the winter before, 
had righted the wrongs of the Boston boys, was by 
far the least military and illustrious appearing 
of the three, although the highest in rank. The 


A MORNING ALARM. 


169 


commanding figure of Lord Howe beside him, 
erect and handsome, attracted all eyes to itself, al- 
though his stern and haughty countenance betrayed 
no consciousness of the presence of the people 
about him. Sir Henry Clinton, of stout and 
sturdy build, looked even shorter ‘than usual by 
the side of his tall lordship, though he appeared 
withal every inch the honest, hard-headed soldier 
that he was. The three, seeking the loftiest por- 
tion of the summit, passed directly by where our 
young people were standing. Gervaise involunta- 
rily raised his hat to them, a salute which was 
absently returned by Lord Howe whose glance 
had rested a moment upon the group. 

“There,” said Gervaise lightly to his cousin 
Patty, “ you see that they knew me^ at any 
rate.” 

“ I saw that Lord Howe returned your salute. 
I did not notice any other sign of recognition.” 

“ What do you expect t ” protested he. “ A 
major-general don’t stop and shake hands with a 
midshipman every time he sees him.” 

“ By the way,” here put in Dolly, “ what has be- 


170 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


come of our other cousin Gervaise ? He was here 
a moment ago.” 

“Sure enough,” said Gervaise, looking around. 
“ Why, where can he have taken himself so quick- 
ly?” 

“ He seems to have beaten a hasty retreat at 
the approach of His Majesty’s officers,” observed 
Patty significantly. “ Perhaps he was afraid they 
would recognize him too.” 

“O,” said Gervaise, “he has only stepped off 
among the crowd somewhere. He’ll be back 
presently. You just wait here a bit, will you, 
please ? I want to hear what those officers say.” 

So saying he turned away ; and while pretending 
to look off across the water gradually made his 
way to a point near by where the British generals 
had halted, boyishly interested to catch any words 
they might let fall. 

“ This is surely a much better place for observ- 
ing the situation of affairs,” the Commander-in- 
Chief was saying, as he adjusted his glass and 
raised it to his eye. “Ah! now I have them. 
Bless my soul, there must be a thousand of them 


A MORNING ALARM. 


171 

at the very least. And upon my word, they seem 
to pay no more attention to our shot than if it 
were so many pebble stones.” 

“And no wonder,” declared Lord Howe con- 
temptuously, “ when not one in twenty but flies too 
high or too low. It is bayonets and not balls that 
will be needed to drive yonder insolent rascals 
from their works.” 

“Or rather to take them in their works,” cried 
Sir Henry Clinton. “ All we have to do, your 
Excellency, is to land a few regiments at the 
causeway yonder and we shall have ’em as snug 
as rats in a trap.” 

“You forget. Sir Henry,” returned the governor 
quietly, “ that to land at the causeway would be to 
put ourselves in a trap. We should then have a 
foe both front and rear.” 

“We could ask nothing better than to be sur- 
rounded on all sides by foes such as these,” ob- 
served Howe with a curl of the lip. 

“Aha!” exclaimed Gage, gazing intently across 
the river and not hearing the last remark. “ One 
of our shot has taken effect at least. Did you see 


172 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


that man fall.? See, they are carrying him off. 
Poor fellow! Poor fellow! ’’ The general spoke 
in accents of real commiseration. 

“Yes; and by my Faith!” cried Howe, “k has 
frightened the rest so that they are leaving the 
works. Do you see them crowding back .? The 
knaves are panic stricken.” 

“ Aye, you are right. And ’tis a fair earnest, no 
doubt, of what may be expected of them in actual 
combat. They will run like sheep.” The gov- 
ernor lowered his glass and looked around him 
with an air of satisfaction. 

“ Excuse me, your Excellency,” here suddenly 
spoke up a new voice close at hand, “but if you 
will be so good as to look again you will see 
that not all of yonder band are disposed to run 
away at sight of a man killed.” 

Ger\^aise turned to see in this speaker a grave, 
scholarly looking gentleman in the prescribed dress 
of the legal profession, who now advanced to the 
grasp of officers and was cordially greeted by the 
Commander-in-Chief. 

“Ah, councillor,” the latter said, “so you are 


A MORNING ALARM. 


173 


up betimes, like the loyal subject we know you to 
be, watching the movements of the enemy. But 
what is it you say ? ” The governor had again 
raised his glass. “ Zounds ! ” he instantly ex- 
claimed. “ But there is one audacious fellow 
of them who has leaped upon the embankment 
in the very face of the fire. He is waving his 
sword above his head. ’Tis a foolhardy act! 

“Nay, your Excellency,” objected he who had 
been addressed as “councillor.” “ Not so, surely, 
if ’tis done to encourage his men. See they are 
this minute returning to their work.” 

“ Sure enough ! Sure enough I ” murmured the 
governor, still looking through his glass. “ But 
who is this bold rebel, Willard ? He seems to be 
their leader ; and he has the look of a gentleman, 
if one can tell a gentleman at such a distance. 
Do you know him ?” 

“ Aye, your Excellency, I know him well. He 
is allied to my own family. That is Colonel Pres- 
cott of Peperell.” 

“ Bless my soul, is that so indeed ? And will 
he fight, Willard Will he fight ? ” 


174 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


“ Yes, your Excellency. He is an old soldier. 
He once refused a royal commission. He will 
fight so long as there is a drop of blood in his 
veins.” 

“ The works must be carried ! ” said the gov- 
ernor, firmly shutting his lips together. 

Then for some moments he continued his scrutiny 
in silence. It happened that while thus engaged 
he moved apart a little from his companions and 
in a direction that brought him close beside our 
hero. While thus placed he called out to the 
other two generals to know if they could make 
out the motto upon a flag which the Americans 
had raised at one end of their redoubt. They an- 
swered in the negative, whereupon Master Gervaise, 
who lost nothing of what was said, exclaimed : 

“ Pooh ! I can read what that means with my 
naked eye.” 

He had not meant to speak loud enough to be 
heard ; but the quick ear of the Commander-in- 
Chief caught the words and he turned quickly. 

“ Ah, my lad,” said he, “ can you indeed } 
and what does the flag say, if you please ? ” 


A MORNING ALARM. 


175 


Gervaise would have evaded the responsibility 
of his incautious utterance but he seemed to be 
fairly caught. So he summoned his assurance. 

“ Well, your Excellency,” he answered roguishly, 
“ it says ‘ Come over if you dare ! * 

“ Ah ! ” said the governor, smiling indulgently 
and seeming not at all offended by the jest. 
Then he added, more gravely : “ Very well ; we 
shall be likely to accept the challenge before the 
day is over. And when the time comes, do you 
see to it, my boy, that you are at your station 
aboard ship instead of running about on shore.” 
Then he turned away to rejoin his generals. 

Gervaise, glad to have gotten off so easily after 
having thus attracted notice to himself, thought it 
as well now to return to his own companions. He 
found the two girls still by themselves ; and the 
three moved about among the people for some 
time looking for their missing Virginian cousin — 
or him who was supposed to be such. At length 
they assured themselves that he was no longer on 

♦This question and answer, as well as the conversation just before re- 
lated, are believed to have substantially occurred. 


176 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


the hill ; and it being already past the breakfast 
hour, it was decided to go home without him. 

“ Perhaps we shall find him there before us, 
when we arrive,” Dolly suggested. 

And the first question they asked when they got 
into the house was if anything had been seen of 
him. But he had not appeared. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

^’T^HE good town of Boston, it may with cer- 
tainty be said, has never seen, either be- 
fore nor since, so exciting a day as that which fol- 
lowed the events narrated in the last chapter, the 
seventeenth of June, seventeen hundred and sev- 
enty-five. All the morning long, while the thun- 
der of the cannon sounded constantly in their ears, 
the people of the town looked on with anxious ex- 
pectation at the preparations of the foreign army 
that held their streets, making ready to go out and 
do battle with the intrepid band of provincials 
that had established itself on the neighboring 
height ; hour after hour, as the day advanced, they 
watched and waited, seeing at length a glittering 
host put forth from the foot of the town, make its 
way across the stream and, landing on the shore. 


177 


78 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


long delay itself there, completing its preparations 
and awaiting the proper moment ; and then, with 
bated breath and beating hearts and cheeks that 
alternately flushed with joy and pride or blanched 
with terror, they stood and marked the progress of 
one of the most famous battles that the world 
has known, on whose outcome their fate and the 
fate of their country depended, and in which, in 
many cases, the fortunes and lives of their own 
friends and dear ones were ventured. 

The reader may be sure that young Gervaise 
Brenshaw, setting forth by himself later in the 
morning to see what he could see, shared in the 
general excitement. It was now evident to him as 
to everybody that the day was likely to bring forth 
great things ; and as he hurried breathlessly along 
directing his steps toward the lower part of the 
town, he felt his heart swell within him with a 
kind of wild joy and exultation — a feeling which, 
he afterwards remembered himself to have thought, 
must have been very like that gaudia certaminis of 
which he had read in his Caesar’s Commentaries 
on his Livy. 


THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 


179 


Coming out before long upon Marlborough 
street (now Washington) near by where Milk 
street joined it and perceiving a gathering of peo- 
ple about the gates of the Governor’s residence, 
he turned himself hither. The Province House 
was an imposing three-story structure of brick sur- 
mounted by an octagonal cupola which upheld to 
the view of all the town a gigantic copper Indian 

— the emblem of the colony — who, with arrow 
fitted to his bow and drawn to its head, was taking 
perpetual aim directly into the wind’s eye. The 
house stood some distance back from the street 
and was separated from it by a beautiful lawn 
shaded by a pair of immense oak-trees, one on 
either side the broad walk. A lofty flight of stone 
steps led up to the door, protected by a massive 
portico from whose front the royal arms, in gilt 
carving, glittered in the sun. The balcony above 
was surrounded by an iron balustrade ; and it was 
from here that all the Governors of the Province 

— Shute, Burnet Shirley, Pownall, Bernard and 
Gage himself — had been accustomed to read their 
proclamations and harangue the people. 


l8o A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 

Gervaise had already found that in the present 
state of affairs, where uniforms were rather the rule 
than the exception, his midshipman’s dress served 
rather to protect him from notice than to attract 
it ; and that oftentimes it was even a convenience. 
Under its cover he passed without challenge the 
sentinel at the gates who had been placed there 
to keep out the people; and, his eagerness to 
know what was going on, quite overcoming his 
fear of any possible evil consequences that might 
result therefrom, he mingled freely with the officers 
and messengers that were passing in and out, or 
standing about in groups discussing the topic of 
the moment. He spoke to nobody, nor did any- 
body in turn seem to pay him the slightest atten- 
tion as he moved about, listening wherever it 
pleased him to what was being said. He gath- 
ered from what he heard that a council of the Gov- 
ernor and his generals was going on inside ; and 
it was presently rumored that troops were to be 
sent over at once against the rebel works, and 
that Sir William Howe was to be given the com- 
mand. Gervaise was especially interested in the 


THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. l8l 

conversation of an officer of high rank and dash- 
ing appearance — whom he suspected of being 
General Burgoyne, though he did not hear him ad- 
dressed by name — who came out at the last and 
who was immediately surrounded by eager ques- 
tioners. This gentleman somewhat lugubriously 
communicated the fact that Sir Henry Clinton and 
himself had been appointed to stay in the town 
and serve as spectators, Howe having drawn the 
prize of leadership in the expedition.. But, he 
laughingly added, he had no reason to complain 
after all since there was to be only a sham battle ; 
and no doubt the spectacle of the Yankees taking 
to their heels at the first approach of the regular 
troops would be a vastly entertaining one. While 
listening to some details of the plan of attack given 
by this officer, Gervaise felt a touch qi/.fiis shoulder 
and turning was confronted by aii^^rderly who 
seemed to have just come out of the house (he 
was bareheaded) and who held out to him an 
official-looking document. 

“ Here is what you have been waiting for,” said 
he. “ Why don’t you stay where we can find you ? 


i 82 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


VVeVe something else to do to-day besides hunting 
up you youngsters when we want you.” Then he 
put the document into our hero’s hands and with 
a careless “ Come, now ; off with you,” turned 
away. 

Gervaise had taken the paper mechanically and 
now stood looking at it rather stupidly and wonder- 
ing what he should do with it. The next moment 
however he caught sight of a young lad, dressed 
like himself in a reefer’s uniform, who was leaning 
against one of the wooden pillars of the portico 
and talking with a diminutive ensign of the army ; 
and he at once divined that he had been mistaken for 
this young gentleman. He accordingly went over 
to him and offered him the packet with exactly the 
words which had accompanied its presentation to 
himself : “ Here is what you have been waiting 
for.” 

The eagerness with which the strange midship- 
man received it, and the alacrity with which he 
took his departure, convinced our hero that his 
conjecture had been correct. Shortly after this 
he himself took his leave, fearing, perhaps, that if 


THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 1 83 

•he Stayed longer some service might be laid upon 
him which could not be so easily transferred. 

At half-past eleven o’clock a large number of 
troops, fully armed and furnished with ammuni- 
tion, blankets and provisions, was paraded ; and 
as noon approached these were marched down to 
the North Battery and Long Wharf, there to em- 
bark for Charlestown. They were the choicest com- 
panies of grenadiers and light infantry and made 
a splendid appearance with their scarlet uniforms 
and flashing arms as they passed through Cornhill 
and down King street to the water. Gervaise 
laughed as he found himself running along beside 
them as eager and excited as the veriest schoolboy in 
the crowd. “ Following the soldiers ” was an occu- 
pation which he believed himself some time since to 
have outgrown ; but this was an exceptional occa- 
sion. 

At the wharf a vast number of barges and 
smaller boats from the ships were already in wait- 
ing, on board which, with the trouble and confu- 
sion usually attending such a proceeding, the 
troops were slowly taken. Our hero, standing 


184 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


close to the caplog of the wharf and thoroughly 
absorbed in watching the process of embarkation, 
was suddenly accosted by a harsh voice from be- 
hind while he felt himself at the same time roughly 
taken by the shoulders and set bodily to one side : 

“ Come, come, youngster. Gangway here, if you 
please. Haven’t you anything better to do than 
to be standing here in the way of busier folk } ” 

Gervaise turned fiercely upon the speaker whom 
he found to be a choleric-looking, exceedingly cor- 
pulent individual in the uniform of a sea lieuten- 
ant. 

“ I didn’t know anybody was coming who re- 
quired four times as much room as ordinary peo- 
ple,” said he angrily, with no thought for the 
moment but to resent the injury sustained by 
his youthful dignity. 

“What’s that, sir?” demanded the lieutenant 
who had been passing on but was instantly halted 
by this allusion to a fault in his figure, as to which, 
being a seaman, he was particularly sensitive. “ Is 
that the way you speak to your superiors, sir 1 
What is your name ? ” 


THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 185 

“ I don’t know that it matters ” — Gervaise hotly 
began in reply, and then abruptly stopped himself, 
remembering all at once his own anomalous posi- 
tion, and realizing that he was getting into trouble. 

The lieutenant finished his sentence for him. 

“ It doesn’t matter to me what your name is, 
eh } We’ll see about that, sir. By my buttons ! 
The Service is come to a pretty pass when every 
midshipman thinks himself of as much consequence 
as the Lord High Admiral himself. I’ve a great 
mind to order you under arrest, sir, for insubordi- 
nation.” The irate officer looked around as if 
in search of some one to whom he might commit 
such an order. 

Gervaise, seriously alarmed at this threat, was 
yet quite at a loss what to do or say to get himself 
out of the difficulty. At that instant, however, 
there fell upon his ear the tones of a voice with 
which he was familiar ; and, lo, there was the mys- 
terious young stranger — who had a way, it would 
seem, of turning up unexpectedly at all sorts of 
times and places — taking him by the arm and 
cheerily addressing himself to the lieutenant. The 


i86 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


Stranger was now attired, like Gervaise himself, in 
a midshipman’s jaunty uniform ; and a trim, ship- 
shape, fine-looking young sailor he appeared. 

“Ah, Mr. Myrtle,” he said, “my friend here 
seems to have run athwart your hawse in some 
way. I hope he hasn’t been doing anything very 
bad. If so, you must forgive him, sir. He’s a 
volunteer, sir, and he doesn’t quite know what is 
what as yet.” 

“I should think not! ’’growled the lieutenant. 
“ He must have taken me for the steward of the 
midshipman’s mess, by the way he spoke to me.” 

“Well, sir,” laughed the stranger, “he humbly 
begs your pardon. He is under my charge and I 
shall soon teach him his duty.” 

Then, touching his hat to the officer, and before 
anything more could be said, he whirled our hero 
about and hastened away with him along the 
wharf. 

“ I should have thought,” he testily observed to 
Gervaise as they walked along, “ that of all days 
you would have known enough to have stayed at 
home to-day. What are you thinking of? You 


THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 187 

would have had yourself in a nice mess if I had 
not happened to come up.” 

“ Well,” answered Gervaise doggedly, “ I am 
bound to see what is going on, such a day as this.” 

“Then,” said the other dryly, “you’d better 
have somebody with you to take care of you. You 
come with me. I’ll take you where you can see 
what is going on.” 

He led the way to one of the boats alongside 
the wharf in which, besides the crew at the oars, 
as many soldiers as possible were already seated 
and of which the young officer appeared to be in 
sole command. He gave Gervaise a place in the 
stern-sheets beside himself, and they sat for some 
minutes impatiently awaiting the signal for start- 
ing. 

This came at length in the form of a blue flag 
displayed at the Somerset’s foremast ; and then 
slowly and in perfect order the fleet of boats pulled 
out into the stream and made its way toward the 
Charlestown shore, where at the same time the 
men-of-war and floating batteries moved up to their 
places, and the roar of the cannonade was re- 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


1 88 

doubled. Surely the people of Boston, who at this 
moment made black with their numbers the house- 
tops and hillsides of the town, had never looked 
upon so grand a sight as this brilliant-hued host 
thus taking up its line of boat-march across the 
river. Our hero, so unexpectedly finding himself 
apart of the spectacle, thought of this as he looked 
back, and wondered if his cousins were looking on 
from the cupola of the house ; but his mind was 
presently much more occupied with the antici- 
pation of the exciting events which, it seemed cer- 
tain, were speedily to occur. 

The landing was made about one o’clock at the 
extreme end of the Charlestown peninsula known 
as Moulton’s Point, and entirely without opposi- 
tion ; the humble band of provincials from their 
post on the hill near by looking down upon it in 
sullen and anxious silence. The troops were at 
once formed into a triple line with the intention 
of attacking at once ; but a farther observation of 
the enemy’s position convinced the British general 
of the need of a larger force, and the boats were 
accordingly sent back to the town for the reinforce- 


TAKE ME OVER THERE AS EAST AS YOU CAN,” SAID SIR HENRY CLINTON. 



I . Il l V 1 ^ il .Ll.JJ 




THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 191 

ments, the soldiers who had already landed sit- 
ting down upon the ground meanwhile and eating 
their dinner. It was nearly three in the after- 
noon when the barges, filled with troops, again re- 
turned and the army, numbering now some three 
thousand men, was at length ready for action. 

The boats, emptied of their living freight, still 
lay at the point of landing; and that in which 
Gervaise Brenshaw sat by the side of his mysteri- 
ous friend was so placed as to command the best 
possible view of the works upon the hill and the 
ground that lay between. The two lads, thus 
strangely thrown together at such a time and spec- 
tators perforce where both without doubt would 
gladly have been actors, closely watched the event 
which followed, with divided sympathies but with 
one interest and excitement. 

The British forces were divided into two columns 
with one of which General Bigot was to march 
up Breed’s Hill and drive the provincials from the 
redoubt while the other under Howe himself ad- 
vanced to the right along the Mystic shore for the 
purpose of putting to flight a detachment of the 


192 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


enemy who had planted themselves behind a rail- 
fence near the foot of Bunker’s Hill, and at the 
same time to cut off the retreat from the redoubt 
itself. It was the movements of the first of these 
— the left wing — that occupied the attention of 
those in the boats. 

“ Now for it ! ” exclaimed Gervaise, as the word 
was at length given and the troops moved for- 
ward. “They have started at last. I wonder 
if they will make any stand against them.” The 
last “ they ” referred to the Americans above. 
And indeed to one who had been, as had he, 
among the splendid troops of the King and who 
saw them now marching steadily off in their pride 
and beauty, it was difficult to believe that a band 
of undisciplined countrymen, most of whom had 
never seen a battle, could for a moment effectually 
resist them. 

“ Stand ! ” uttered his companion scornfully. “ If 
they do, it will be because they are too frightened 
to move. No, you will see them on the run before 
we are half-way up the hill.” 

The troops advanced slowly, for they were en- 


THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 


193 


cumbered with their knapsacks and blankets, and 
the sun was hot. The affair (although they were 
destined before long to look at it in a different 
light) had not as yet ceased to have for them the 
character of a holiday parade. They presently 
arrived where the tall grass and the walls and 
fences forced them to advance more slowly still. 

“ They don't seem in any hurry to get within 
range,” observed Gervaise, seeking to encourage 
himself a little. 

The stranger laughed. “ They are not so used 
to climbing stone walls and cutting cross-lots as 
your friends from the hayseed districts,” said he. 

“ Ah, now they begin to fire,” added he, pres- 
ently as the regulars, continuing their advance and 
now within gunshot of the works, opened fire with 
their muskets. 

“And why don’t the Americans give it to them 
back ? ” Gervaise cried in turn, angry and morti- 
fied that no slightest show of resistance was yet 
made on the part of his countrymen. “Now is 
their chance. Don’t they mean to fire a single 
shot?” 


194 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


“ Probably their old blunderbusses won’t go off,” 
suggested his companion provokingly. “ Or may- 
be they mean to hold their works at the point of 
the pitchfork.” 

“ No ! No ! ” exclaimed Gervaise. “ See, they 
are returning the fire.” 

And indeed at that moment a few scattering 
shots were fired from the American lines. It was 
only a few however; and the next instant, here 
and there along the redoubt, an officer was seen to 
leap upon the parapet and run along it, kicking 
up the guns as if to prevent their being dis- 
charged. 

“ Before George ! ” uttered Gervaise’s compan- 
ion, “that is cool. Why, I do believe the rascals 
are holding their fire on purpose.” 

A half minute of silence ensued between the 
two as with breathless interest they watched the 
royal troops, still firing sharply, advance nearer 
and nearer the opposing works. Then all in an 
instant it became evident that the stranger’s last 
words had expressed the truth of the matter. 
There were braver hearts and cooler heads behind 


THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 


195 


that rude pile of earth than any Briton up to this 
moment had dreamed. Their gallant leader had 
assured them that if they would obey his orders 
and wait for the word, not a red coat should reach 
the redoubt. “ Powder is scarce ; don’t waste it.” 
“ Wait until you see the whites of their eyes.” 
“Fire at their waist-bands.” “Aim at the hand- 
some coats.” “ Pick olf the commanders.” Such 
were some of the words that were passed from 
mouth to mouth to restrain the impatient and 
steady the excited and timid. And until the enemy 
were within a dozen rods of the works not a shot — > 
save in disobedience of orders — was fired. Then 
suddenly, all along the rebel line, there seemed to 
leap up from behind the despised breastwork a 
mass of lurid flame, followed by the instantaneous 
report of many weapons; another and another 
carefully directed volley succeeded; and then 
those who were watching, with hearts that had 
almost ceased to beat, the fearful contest, saw 
the chosen troops of the King halt and waver, 
rally again and once again and stagger on ; and 
then, falling uncertainly back for a moment, turn 


196 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


at length, panic stricken and terrified, and, in spite 
of the efforts of their officers who, with drawn 
swords and voices hoarsely raised, sought to pre- 
vent the disaster, flee in broken and disordered 
masses down the hill. At the same moment a 
similar repulse had been suffered by the right wing 
under Lord Howe, and all along the line of attack 
the scarlet-clad troops were seen in full retreat. 

Gervaise Brenshaw was as quick to note this as- 
tonishing fact as anybody and in an instant he had 
leaped upon a thwart of the boat, hat in hand, 
wild with joy and about to echo the shout of 
victory that was heard going up from the top of 
the hill. He was as quickly pulled back, however, 
by the young man at his side. 

“ Are you mad ? ” the latter hissed in his ear. 
“ Remember where you are ! There are a hun- 
dred men close beside you who would tear you in 
pieces at this moment if they heard you.” He 
spoke angrily enough himself and his face was 
flushing hotly. The sight of his flying countrymen 
had been by no means as agreeable to him as to 
our hero. * 


THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 


197 


At this moment an elderly officer came walking 
rapidly down to the shore, looking around as if in 
search of some one. Gervaise’s companion, quick 
to scent the prospect of service, leaped ashore and 
ran to him. “ Anything wanted, sir ? ” said he, 
touching his hat. 

The officer regarded the midshipman an instant 
and then glanced at his boat. 

“Yes,” he answered hurriedly. “ I want a mes- 
senger — to go to the town.” He lowered his 
voice then, and gave a word or two of explanatory 
message and directions. 

The latter touched his hat again with a cheery 
“ All right, sir,” as the other concluded, and 
hastened back to his boat. He seemed a little 
sober however^as he took the rudder-ropes in hand 
and bade his men give way. “ A pretty errand 
that is ! ” he muttered discontentedly. “ I almost 
wish I had stayed in the boat. But orders are 
orders.” 

“What did he want?” inquired Gervaise with 
curiosity. 

' “ That,” said the stranger curtly, “ he didn’t say 


198 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


I was to tell you.” Then he called to his crew. 
“ Come, men, be lively. It’s a dirty business ; 
and the sooner we’ve done our part of it the 
better.” 

The boat, urged forward by the sturdy oarsmen 
and guided by its young commander, swiftly shot 
across the narrow stream and its destination had 
hardly become apparent before it was reached. 
The keel grated presently upon the sand of the 
little beach that lay at the foot of Copps Hill and 
the English midshipman, leaping to shore, has- 
tened up the slope to the battery which crowned 
the eminence where he was met by two officers of 
rank whom, even at that distance, Gervaise recog- 
nized as Sir Henry Clinton and the gentleman 
whom he had set down as General Burgoyne when 
he had seen him that morning on the Province 
House steps. 

The stranger returned to the boat presently and 
sat down there, apparently having received orders 
to wait. And almost immediately the object of 
their coming made itself known. For now the 
battery on the hill above them, which had been 


THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 


199 


until then raining its storm of shot and shell across 
the water, suddenly changed its missiles to burn- 
ing “ carcasses ” in obedience to the order which 
had come from the field ; and these directed upon 
the deserted village opposite and falling thickly 
among its heated roofs, quickly accomplished their 
cruel object ; and to the other awful sights which 
the town of Boston witnessed that day was added 
the painful spectacle of their neighbors’ homes in 
flames. 

Meanwhile at the scene of conflict, the troops 
had been quickly rallied ; a new attack had been 
ordered; with the same arrangement as before 
but with more of respect for their foe and more of 
serious resolution, the columns had again mounted 
the height ; and to our two young friends in the 
boat on the Copps Hill shore their movements 
now again became visible as, firing briskly as be- 
fore, they again drew near the earthen defense of 
the Americans. A breathless minute followed of 
more intense interest than ever, while the redoubt 
in grim silence awaited the approach of the regu- 
lars to within a much shorter distance than at first, 


200 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


Then again a sheet of flame leaped forth ; again 
the messengers of death, coolly withheld until each 
one was certain, sped swiftly on their way; and 
again, as the smoke lifted, the invincible veterans 
of King George were seen to recoil and flee before 
the fire of the New England husbandmen. 

Gervaise and his companion were still regarding 
this event, the one with joy redoubled, the other 
with deepest chagrin, when a step was heard upon 
the sand and they turned to find Sir Henry Clinton 
at the water’s edge. He stepped without ceremony 
on board the boat. “Take me over there as fast 
as you can, my boy,” was all he said ; but the 
fierce frown upon his face told how deeply he was 
stirred, and his purpose in hurrying to the scene 
of action was plain. The affair of Bunker Hill 
was no longer an amusing farce ; it had turned 
itself into tragedy, and the honor of King and 
country were at stake. 

Quickly enough the boat once more crossed 
the river and the British general threw himself on 
shore. Gervaise and his companion, still remain- 
ing in the boat, found themselves once more in a 


THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 


201 


position to view to the best possible advantage 
what should take place. 

The troops were once again forming for the at- 
tack ; but this time so much time was spent in the 
process and so carefully was their disposition made 
while every unnecessary equipment was cast aside, 
that it was evident that all was to be staked upon 
this final assault. Much more wisdom was shown 
too in the plan of their advance, when at length it 
was made. They moved forward in column, con- 
centrating their attack upon the redoubt and mak- 
ing only a feint in the vicinity of the rail fence ; 
they reserved their fire this time after the fashion 
of their foe ; and the artillery was so placed and 
used as to render far more effective service. 

The Americans, on the other hand, although 
they had learned coolness and gained an abund- 
ance of what might be termed military self respect 
in the two previous assaults, were for one simple 
reason, in the worst possible condition for sustain- 
ing a third. Their ammunition was all but ex- 
pended, most of them having only one round left; 
and in a hand to hand conflict they could look for 


202 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


no success whatever since there was scarcely a 
bayonet among them. They were ordered to hold 
their fire until the enemy were within twenty yards, 
at which distance they poured out upon them a 
terrible volley before which the latter recoiled for 
an instant and seemed about to retreat once more. 
The fire could not be repeated however, and they 
presently rallied and pushed on. A shower of 
stones met them as they closed in upon the works 
but this only showed the weakness of their oppo- 
nents and did nothing to stay their onset. In an- 
other moment the parapet was as much a protection 
to the attacking as to the attacked ; and although 
the desperate Americans, with clubbed muskets and 
what bayonets they had, fiercely contested every 
inch of ground, they were compelled slowly to re- 
tire before their better equipped and out-number- 
ing foe, and the English troops at length were seen 
to be in possession of the redoubt. 

Of our two friends in the boat it was the young 
Briton’s turn this time to jump upon the seat and 
raise the shout of victory. But Gervaise himself 
felt by no means downhearted at the final result of 


THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 


203 


the contest. To him, as to all who had seen it, it 
was evident that the Americans had had the best 
of the fight so long as they had anything to fight 
with ; and the loss of the redoubt was in itself a 
matter of no consequence. 

“ Well,” declared our hero presently, drawing a 
long breath as it became clear that the battle was 
over, “ I’m mighty glad to have been here to see it, 
I shall never forget this day.” 

“Yes,” said his companion. “And now the 
question is, how we are to get you home again. I 
think I can manage it, though. The boats will 
probably be set to work at once to carry back the 
wounded. And as soon as we are over the other 
side, I can slip you ashore.” Then he’ added, 
“And by the way, perhaps you had best not say 
anything of your having been with me to-day to — 
to our aunt and cousins.” He laughed as he thus 
laid claim to a share of the relationship. “ I shall 
be on duty, I suppose, to-night and to-morrow. 
But I shall present myself at the house again by 
Monday.” 


CHAPTER IX. 


ENSIGN WIGGLESWORTH. 

I T was two days after the battle of Bunker Hill 
and the terrible excitement into which the 
town of Boston had been thrown by that event had 
in a measure subsided. Patty Brenshaw was sitting 
on the stairs in the front hall all by herself. The 
tall clock on the landing behind her — made by 
John Green of London in the year 1715 and that 
chimed an air every three hours — had just cele- 
brated with its most elaborate performance the 
hour of noon. Miss Patty did not appear entirely 
contented and happy. Her brows were knitted to- 
gether almost to scowling, and she now and then 
muttered emphatically to herself. What could it 
be that disturbed her ? Was it that in the recent 
battle her countrymen with whom she so truly sym- 
pathized had finally been compelled to fall back 


204 


ENSIGN WIGGLESWORTH. 


205 


and return to Cambridge, leaving the field in posses- 
sion of their boastful adversaries ? It could hardly 
have been this, since everybody was by this time 
aware that the fight had been substantially a victory 
for the provincials who, so long as their ammuni- 
tion lasted, had repulsed and driven back with fear- 
ful loss the regular troops Was it that the town 
of Boston was now subject to stricter martial law 
than ever, so that a man dared not be seen talk- 
ing with his friend upon the street, and no one was 
permitted to be abroad after ten o’clock at night 
except with a pass from the Governor, and an order 
had even been issued that no person should be 
seen to wipe his face with a white handkerchief 
since this was regarded as a sign of mutiny ? But 
it could hardly be this either, since the young lady 
would joyfully have suffered far greater hardships 
than these for the sake of her oppressed country. 
Was it, then, that her Virginian cousin — or he who 
had come to them professing to be such — had been 
missing ever since his sudden disappearance on 
the morning of the battle and no one knew where 
he was ? No, again ; for a note had been brought 


2o6 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


to the house only the evening before by a sailor- 
looking but exceedingly non-communicative indi- 
vidual, signed by the missing young man and as- 
suring them of his safety and intention to return to 
them as soon as possible. 

No, it was not for these, or for any similar reason, 
that Miss Patty was so disturbed : it was simply that 
her feminine curiosity was excited to a pitch almost 
beyond endurance and that her feminine wit was en- 
tirely baffled and at fault — and this, still, upon that 
same “ something about her cousins that she did not 
understand.” She had noted in what they said and 
did a hundred strange things since first her suspi- 
cions had been aroused ; but her puzzle about them 
had only grown and seemed now farther from a solu- 
tion than ever. What was this mysterious something 
about the two young men that made them act so 
queerly and talk so strangely ? — one of them wear- 
ing a sailor’s dress yet talking like a landsman and 
one pretending to be a landsman yet talking at 
times, she was sure, like a person accustomed to 
ships and the sea ; one of them claiming to be an 
American, yet wholly devoted to the service of the 


ENSIGN WIGGLES WORTH. 


207 


King, and one professing himself an Englishman yet 
secretlysympathizing with the cause of the colonies; 
for she had watched Gervaise closely during the last 
three days and was quite certain of this last also. 

“ What shall I doV* she exclaimed at length, 
stamping her little foot upon the stair in almost 
tearful vexation. “ It’s no use asking him^ of course.” 
The allusion here was evidently to Gervaise. “ And 
the other one is away. And the negro boy is so 
stupid it is no use trying to get any information out 
of him. And Dolly won’t help me at all : she doesn’t 
believe there is anything the matter.” 

So then, for a few moments, the poor girl gave 
herself up to a mood of silent despair. But by and 
by her brow began to clear ; and presently an ex- 
pression of hope lightened up her face. “ Yes,” 
she said, with new energy at last, “ I do believe 
that I can find out in that way. Yes ; I will call 
on the military for aid. I will send for Ensign 
Wigglesworth.” 

Thereupon she arose decidedly and, going up 
stairs, sat down to her desk and wrote a dainty 
little note to the gentleman named, requesting him 


2o8 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


to call upon her that afternoon at the hour of four. 
This note she took out doors and committed with 
her own hands to the care of Gracchus, the stable- 
boy, instructing him to deliver it at once and with- 
out saying a word to anybody, a direction so liter- 
ally attended to by the faithful servant that, even 
when arrived at the door of the house where the 
ensign resided, he held out the missive to the per- 
son who answered his rap with lips still firmly closed 
and then turned away in solemn dumbness. 

Ensign Wigglesworth was an officer of the Brit- 
ish army still in his teens, who wore the white fac- 
ings of the Forty-seventh Regiment of Foot, and 
who, with a few brother officers, messed at an ex- 
cellent private boarding-house on Tremont street 
not far from the quarters of Lord Percy. Patty had 
made his acquaintance at an evening party given 
some time before this by the Misses Byles, daugh- 
ters of the Reverend Doctor Mather Byles of the 
Congregational Church. Madame Brenshaw, in al- 
lowing her daughters to associate with the family of 
this gentleman, overlooked the fact of his being 
minister of a dissenting body in consideration of 


ENSIGN WIGGLESWORTH. 


209 


his aristocratic connections and undoubted loyalty. 
On the occasion referred to, Ensign Wiggles worth 
had informed Miss Patty, in the course of some 
quite extended remarks which seemed to pertain 
largely to himself, that he was the “ life of his 
mess ” — “ kept them all laughing the whole blessed 
time, you know.” This statement the young lady 
found no difficulty in believing, fully substantiated 
as it was by the complacent expression of counte- 
nance which accompanied it and the flat, effeminate 
tone of voice with which it was uttered. One could 
readily imagine the messmates of Ensign Wiggles- 
worth laughing at him the whole blessed time. It 
shall farther be here said of this young warrior, 
however, that he was, at any rate, a gentlemanly, 
good-hearted, well-meaning little fellow, and with 
manliness enough about him, to say the least, to 
keep him free from the grosser vices which were all 
too common among the men with whom he was as- 
sociated. 

Ensign Wigglesworth had been pierced through 
and through by the bright, bewitching glances of 
the younger Miss Brenshaw ; and on several simi 


210 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


lar occasions later he had diligently sought her out, 
and again entertained himself by talking to her. 
And when now at dinner he found her delicate lit- 
tle note beneath his plate, and had presently ac- 
quainted himself with the flattering intimation it 
conveyed — that Miss Patty wished particularly to 
see him (the italics are the young lady’s own) and 
would be extremely obliged if he would present him- 
self that afternoon at four at the Brenshaw mansion 
without fail^ his soldierly heart beat high beneath 
the snowy facings of his uniform. He scarcely said 
any funny things at all during the meal that fol- 
lowed, and at the last, leaving his pudding un- 
tasted, hurried off to his room to prepare himself 
for the expedition, a process involving on his part 
a far greater outlay of time and pains than had 
been incurred by any of his brother officers even 
in arraying themselves for their momentous excur- 
sion to Charlestown a few days before. 

Arrived at the house with military exactness at 
the appointed moment, and strutting rather pom- 
pously up the walk, the ensign was promptly let in 
at the door by Miss Patty herself, who greeted him 


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ENSIGN WIGGLESWORTH. 


213 


cordially and led him into a drawing room to the 
right. Here she threw open the shutters and, plac- 
ing her visitor in the strong light, stood off and 
looked at him. He was certainly a very pretty 
sight, a fair-faced, flaxen-haired, dapper little grena- 
dier, all bepowdered and beperfumed and quite re- 
splendent ill his showy regimentals. Miss Patty 
gazed at him with rapture : 

“ Mr. Wigglesworth, I am delighted to see you.” 

Mr. Wigglesworth serenely turned himself about 
in the sunlight. 

“ Thankee, Miss Patty,” he replied in his charac- 
teristic drawl. “ I am delighted to be seen, I as- 
sure you.” 

“ I hope you’ll excuse my writing to you.” 

“ Well, now. Miss Patty, I’ll try.” 

“ ’Twas a first offence, you know; and I promise 
never to repeat it.” 

“ O, I say ! Really now, Miss Patty, if I thought 
that, I’d go right over to Cambridge this minute 
and cast myself upon the pitchforks of those sav- 
ages that are encamped there. Upon my word, I 


would.” 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


214 

“ O, don’t do that, Mr. Wigglesworth, pray don’t ! 
At least not until you’ve done what I wanted of you 
first. You see I have sent for you as a sort of 
necessity — a military necessity. These are times 
of war, you know.” 

“ La, Miss Patty, I hope you don’t call this war 
— with only a mob of half-clothed rustics against 
us, armed with pitchforks and hoe handles.” 

“ Oh ! Was it pitchforks and hoe handles that 
the King’s troops were running away from one day 
last April when they came back from Lexington 
and Concord } ” 

“ Bless you. Miss Patty, the troops didn’t run. 
Of course, they marched home again after accom- 
plishing w'hat they went out for.” 

“ Ah ! They were very much out of breath, ’tis 
said, when they got back to town. And was it 
pitchforks and hoe handles, pray, that on Saturday 
last sent them twice flying back to the water’s edge 
like so many sheep, before they were within twenty 
yards of the redoubt ? Humph ! They say that 
Britons never know when they are beaten, and 
these seem to be cases in point. However, I 


ENSIGN WIGGLESWORTH. 


215 


didn’t send for you to talk about that. I sent for 
you, to begin with, because you were a soldier.” 

“ O — aw.” The soldier drew himself up and 
elevated his beardless chin. 

“ And 1 sent for you in preference to any other 
soldier — Lord Percy or General Howe or the 
Commander-in-Chief — because I knew that you 
had military genius. This is a case that requires 
military genius.” 

“ Dear me. Miss Patty.” He raised his hand 
protestingly as if he would put all this glory from 
him. 

“ Yes,” pursued Patty, “ and because I felt sure 
you would be willing to help me.” 

“ I am your devoted slave.” 

“ And because I knew I could trust you.” 

“ Most assuredly. Miss Patty ! ” 

“And because I knew you weren’t afraid of — 
of powder.” She glanced mischievously at his 
carefully dressed hair. 

“ Certainly not. Miss Patty I ” 

“ Nor of Americans.” 


“ No — none except you'" 


2i6 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


“ Well, it’s an American you will have to deal 
with now. At least, I think so. Sit down, do. 
Didn’t I ask you before? Excuse me; I was 
so full of business. Well, now, do you know any- 
thing about the ships in the harbor ? Are you ac- 
quainted much among the officers, for instance ? ’* 
“Why, ya-as. I know some of ’em. There’s 
Linzee, you know. He was at the party where I 
first had the pleasure of seeing you. And then 
there’s Captain Chads ” — 

“ O, I don’t mean the captains. / know them. 
Do you know any of the midshipmen ?” 

“ I know one or two. Let’s see. There’s Ingra- 
ham of the Nautilus^ and Hodges of the Preston^ 
and Fortescue of the Somerset. — I dined with the 
midshipmen on board the Somerset one day — De 
Berniere and I.” 

“ O, indeed ! You dined with the midshipmen on 
board the Somerset^ did you ? Was that lately ? ” 
“ About a fortnight ago.” 

‘‘Ah! And was one of them named Bren- 
shaw ? ” 

“ Brenshaw ? Brenshaw ? ” The ensign repeated 


ENSIGN WIGGLESWORTH. 


217 


the name thoughtfully. “ Well,” said he, “ the name 
sounds familiar.” 

“ Pshaw ! Of course it does. It is my name.” 

“ Bless my soul, so it is, Miss Patty. I can’t re- 
member about the midshipmen, though — whether 
there was any Brenshaw among ’em. I never was 
good at names. If he’d looked\\kt, you now ” — 
“Come here,” suddenly commanded Miss Patty. 
“ Here, to this window.” She drew him across the 
room to the north window and opened the shutter 
a little way. “ Look out there. Do you see any- 
body — on a settle there, under the oak-tree } ” 
The ensign peered cautiously through the crack. 
“ Why, yaas,” drawled he. “ I see your sister, 
Miss Dolly, and another young fellow — That is, I 
should say, another young person — a fellow in 
midshipman’s uniform. Who is he ? ” 

“ Did you never see him before ? ” 

“Never, upon my word.” 

“ He was not one of the midshipmen at your din- 
ner on board the Somerset t ” 

“ No.” 


“ You are sure ? ” 


2i8 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


“ Yaas,” said the ensign, taking another peep 
through the shutter. “ Sure as I am of the number 
of my buttons.” 

“ Humph! I thought as much.” 

“ Eh?” 

“ I didn’t suppose he was one of the midship- 
men on board the Somerset.'^ 

“ What ship does he belong to ? ” asked the en- 
sign. 

“ He belongs to the Polyhedron^'' answered Patty 
grimly. 

She had lately looked up this word in Doctor 
Johnson’s dictionary. 

“ The Polyhedron 1 " repeated the ensign, per- 
plexed. 

“ Yes. Come and sit down here while I tell you 
about him.” 

They went back to their seats. 

“ Mr. Wigglesworth,” uttered Patty with great 
solemnity, “ do you know I have reasons for be- 
lieving that that young man out there with my sister 
Dolly, who wears a King’s uniform and pretends 
to be a King’s midshipman, isn’t really any such 


ENSIGN WIGGLESWORTH. 


2 19 

thing ? He is an American and sympathizes with 
• the colonists heart and soul.” 

“ Eh ? Bless my soul ! ” gasped the startled 
officer. 

“Yes ; he’s a rebel in disguise ! ” 

“You don’t tell me, Miss Patty. Why, then he 
is a spy and ought to be arrested.” 

“ Ah ! ” exclaimed Patty, with a gleam of satis- 
faction in her eyes. “ What is that you say ? ” 

“ I say that if he is one of the enemy, inside 
our lines in disguise, he ought to be arrested as a 
spy.” 

“ Mr. Wigglesworth,” cried Patty, “ you are a 
jewel.” 

“ Yaas ? ” assented the ensign, entirely conscious 
of his general worth but not quite aware to what 
special merit this encomium was due. 

“Yes; you are a jewel. A crown jewel, one 
might say.” 

“ Really, Miss Patty ” — 

“ 1 felt sure I was not mistaken in you. I knew 
you had military genius. You have hit it exactly.” 

“ Have 1 1 ” murmured the pleased subaltern. 


220 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


“ Well ! I’m a great hand for hitting it. Almost 
always do it — sometimes without knowing it my- 
self.” 

“ Yes ; you’ve hit it. You have suggested just 
the plan that I want. Wait. Don’t say a word. 
Let me think.” She placed her finger upon her 
lips and for perhaps four seconds was completely 
lost in a fit of becoming abstraction. Then she 
awoke with energy. “Yes; that is what we will 
do. You shall arrest him.” 

“All right,” responded the ensign cheerfully. 
“ I’ll arrest him and have him all hung fqryou, in- 
side of twenty-four hours.” 

“O-ooh ! ” cried Patty in consternation. “ Hung ! 
What do you mean ? ” 

“ Why, if he is really a spy then of course he 
will be hung.” 

“ O, but he isn't really a spy. He is my cousin.” 

“ Your cousin ? ” 

“ Yes ; and it’s only a joke, his putting on that 
uniform and coming into town here — just to play 
a trick on us and make us think he is our cousin 
from England.” ^ 


♦ 


ENSIGN WIGGLESWORTH. 


221 


“ Well,” inquired the ensign, who thought this 
was getting to be extremely complicated, “ what do 
you want to arrest him for, then ? ” 

“ Why, I want to find out.^^ 

“Find out?” 

“ Yes ; find out whether he really is an American 
or not ; and whether he really is our English cousin 
or not. I am not quite sure, after all.” 

“ O, you’re not quite sure ? ” The ensign con- 
sidered the matter soberly for a minute. “ Well,” 
said he, not without point, “ wouldn’t it be well to 
find out before we arrest him ? ” 

“ But,” protested Patty, “ that’s what I want to 
arrest him for — to find out. Don’t you see ? ” 
The ensign passed his hand across his troubled 
brow. “ Why, yaas, I don’t know but I do. Let’s 
see. We want t-o arrest him in order to find out; 
and we want to find out in order to arrest him. Is 
that it?” 

“ Ye-es,” answered Patty, “ I guess so. At any 
rate, I want to arrest him ; and then when he finds 
himself arrested and accused of being a spy, of 
course he will tell who he really is and all about it 


222 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE, 


in order to clear himself ; and so we shall find out. 
Of course I don’t mean to truly arrest him: I only 
meant to arrest him by way of a joke — only he 
wasn’t to know that it was a joke. And I thought 
that you, being a soldier, could arrange it for me.” 
Then all at once she drew herself up with a vast 
assumption of dignity. “ However, if you don’t 
wish to help me, very well. I understood you to 
say that you were my slave, I thought that I 
could depend upon you in an emergency. But I 
see that 1 was mistaken. I regret that I have put 
5 ^ou to the trouble of coming here for nothing. I 
will look elsewhere for a friend in need.” She 
turned her back upon him with a deeply injured 
air, and marched off across the room. 

The bewildered ensign gazed at her aghast for 
one moment and then hurried after. 

“ O — but — aw — really, now — Bless my soul 
and body. Miss Patty ! — I didn’t understand, upon 
my word I didn’t. I didn’t know you meant to 
arrest him in the way of a joke. Help you ! Of 
course I’ll help you. I’ll be only too glad. And 
as for jokes, I’m a great hand at jokes, I assure 


ENSIGN WIGGLESWORTH. 


223 


you. Why, we have lots of jokes in our mess ; 
and I’m almost always at the bottom of ’em in one 
way or another.” 

“Well then,” demanded the young lady, turning 
upon him fiercely, “ what are you making all this 
fuss about, pray — if you are willing to help me?” 

“Fuss!” repeated the sorely perplexed ensign, 
thinking to himself at the same time what an abysm 
woman was. “ Have I been making a fuss? 1 
beg your pardon. I didn’t mean to. Indeed I 
didn’t. I’ll do just what you say, if you’ll only 
command me. I give you my word I will.” 

“ Well, then,” said Patty, swiftly relenting again, 
“sit down here upon this sofa.” She led him to 
the sofa and took her own seat beside him. “ Now,” 
said she in a tone and manner suddenly quite 
friendly and confidential, “ in the first place this is 
a secret conference. Nobody is to know of it ex- 
cept ourselves. Can you keep a secret?” 

“ Like the grave. Miss Patty. Why, you don’t 
think I am like the Governor’s lady, do you ? — 
who, they say, let out the secret of the Concord ex- 
pedition before it took place ? ” 


224 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


“Well, see that don’t let out the secret of 
this expedition before it takes place. Now what I 
want, exactly, is this. I want you to get some 
soldiers — Can you get some soldiers ? ” 

“Bless you, yes; a whole regiment of them.” 

“ I didn’t know there were any whole regiments 
left, after the affair of Saturday,” observed Patty 
caustically. “ But you won’t need a whole regi- 
ment to capture one boy, sixteen years old. Three 
or four men will be enough. I want you to get 
three or four soldiers, then, and come here with 
them to-night at — well, at half-past eight o’clock, 
let us say. You must dress yourself up as a ser- 
geant or corporal, or something, and disguise your- 
self so you will not be recognized. There’s a 
wicket gate in the wall down behind the house at 
the foot of the grounds. Come to that at precisely 
half-past eight o’clock and I will be there to let 
you in. You may knock with your knuckles four 
times — slowly — upon the wicket, so that I shall 
know it is you. Do you understand ? And I guess 
we had better have a password too, so as to make 
sure. Let’s see : Bunker Hill will be a good 


ENSIGN WIGGLESWORTH. 


225 


word, will it not ? It will remind you of the splen- 
did victory recently gained by your illustrious com- 
panions in arms. Well, you knock four times and 
say Bunker Hill and I will let you in. And then 
I will tell you what else I want.'’ 

“ I suppose you expect us to go up to the house 
and arrest him 'i ” queried the ensign. “ That is the 
idea, isn’t it.? ” 

“Yes; only I can’t tell yet just how I shall be 
able to arrange it. I must get him off somewhere, 
away from the rest, if I can. I don’t want anybody 
to know about it if I can help it — nor any dis- 
turbance made. I wouldn’t have him really arrested, 
or accused of being a spy, for the world. You un- 
derstand that and that I depend thoroughly upon 
your discretion. You are to pretend that you have 
had information somehow that he is here in dis- 
guise and that you are sent to arrest him and take 
him to headquarters. And then I will interfere per- 
haps — I shall be right there — and suggest that 
maybe if he can prove his identity, or explain his 
disguise satisfactorily, you will let him go. And 
you will agree to that ; and of course then he will 


226 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


have to confess to avoid being taken before General 
Gage; and so I shall find out what 1 want to know 
— whether he really w my English cousin or whether 
he really isn’t. We’ll make him give an account of 
himself. Don’t you call that an ingenious plan?” 

*• Well ! I should say I did . It’s masterly, Miss 
Patty.” 

“ I told you you were a military genius.” 

“Yaas! but it isn’t my plan, you know.” 

“ Indeed it is, Mr. Wigglesworth, in the main I 
never sho'M have been able to conceive it or elab 
orate it without your help.” 

“Really now, Miss Patty,” — he deprecated, 

“ Really now, Mr. Wigglesworth, you are too 
modest. It isn’t always the old soldiers that are 
the wisest. I haven’t a doubt but that, if you had 
been put in command of the troops Saturday in- 
stead of Lord Howe, the result would have been 
materially different.” 

“ O — aw. Well, really now. Miss Patty, I may say 
that if I had been in Howe’s place I should have 
thought it better to have taken, the redoubt before 
the rebels had used up their ammunition. There’d 


ENSIGN WIGGLESWORTH. 


227 


have been a good deal more glory in it, you know.” 

“ No doubt there would,” dryly assented the 
young lady. “ Well, you see 1 shall profit by the 
Governor’s experience and entrust the command in 
this affair to you instead of to Sir William Howe. 
But we must not talk about it any longer. I have 
a great deal to do yet in the matter myself, and you 
must go right away and make all your arrange- 
ments — about the men and about your disguise, 
you know. There isn’t a minute too much time.” 

Then the young lady, who had already risen to 
her feet, gently but forcibly conducted her visitor 
to the door; and Ensign Wigglesworth took his de- 
parture, thoroughly satisfied with himself and the 
new service in which he had enlisted. 


CHAPTER X. 


MASTER GERVAISE IS ARRESTED. 

ATTY, as the door closed behind her caller, 



turned and went slowly up-stairs, pondering 
the farther details of her plan. In the hall above 
she halted doubtfully a moment, and then going 
on to the door of Gervaise’s room, she pushed it 
open and looked in. The room was empty, of 
course, Gervaise being still out under the oak-tree 
with Dolly; and after an instant’s longer hesita- 
tion Patty suddenly seemed to come to a final de- 
cision and stepped across the threshold. 

“ I don’t like to do such a thing at all, ” she 
murmured — “ rummaging about people’s rooms 
while they are away. But I don’t see how I can 
help it. It won’t do to have anybody shot in 
this affair. It’s another case of military necessity. 
And besides, hasn’t General Gage issued a proc- 


MASTER GERVAISE IS ARRESTED. 


229 


lamation commanding all private citizens to give 
up their arms ? It is my duty as a loyal subject 
to see that his commands are enforced,” concluded 
Patty. 

So saying she went straight to a table that stood 
by the window, and opened the drawer in which, as 
she happened to know, Gervaise was accustomed 
to leave a small pistol that he had brought. A 
single glance within brought a look of disappoint- 
ment to her face. 

“Why, it isn’t here, ” said she. “Can it be that 
he has it in his pocket } I will look in the drawers 
of the bureau ; it may be there.” 

But several minutes’ farther search failed to 
bring the looked-for weapon to light. She came 
upon a small bag of bullets, however, from which 
she had several times seen the pistol loaded, and 
she took possession of this as the next best thing. 
“ Even Americans can’t fight very well when their 
ammunition is exhausted,” said she. 

Then she went down-stairs again, presently 
sauntering out into the grounds and joining her 
sister and cousin beneath the oak-tree. 


230 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


“ We are talking about our lost cousin,” Dolly 
said as she came up. 

“ Yes,” said Gervaise. “ Our Virginian cousin 
Gervaise. ” He looked Patty straight in the eye, 
wondering if she did suspect who he was. 

“O,” responded Patty, calmly returning his 
glance, “ my Virginian cousin Gervaise.” 

“ I can’t help feeling anxious about him,” con- 
tinued Dolly, “in spite of the note we got last 
night.” 

“ I wouldn’t wonder if he had run away to sea,” 
said Patty. “ Or fallen victim to a press-gang at 
least. It was a very seaman-like personage that 
brought the note. I asked him if he was a sailor, 
and he said that just now he had * got his land- 
tacks aboard.’ That was all I could get out of him. 
I think that was what he said. He either said that 
he had got them aboard or that he had not got them 
aboard. Which would it be, cousin Gervaise the 
midshipman ? ” 

“ I’m sure if j'ffu can’t tell what he said, I can’t,” 
laughed cousin Gervaise the midshipman. 

“ But what dc? you suppose has become of him ? ” 


MASTER GERVAISE IS ARRESTED. 


231 


persisted Dolly, still true to the main question. 
“You don’t really think he has been taken on 
board the ship, do you ? ” 

“ Cousin Gervaise might go and see,” suggested 
Patty maliciously; “he hasn’t been on board ship 
for some time.” 

“ I do believe you want to get rid of me,” de- 
clared Gervaise, professing to feel injured. 

“ O, no ; but I don’t want you to forget any of 
your extensive nautical knowledge.” Then after 
a moment she went on : “ As for our Virginian 
cousin, very possibly, after all, it is the army and 
not the navy that is responsible for his nonap- 
pearance. Now I think of it, he disappeared the 
other morning the instant that Governor Gage and. 
Sir William Howe came in sight. Perhaps he has 
some reason to be afraid of them. Perhaps he has 
been arrested by order of the Governor.” 

“Arrested by order of the Governor!” cried 
Dolly. “ For what, pray ? ” 

“O, I don’t know. For being an American, 
perhaps — inside the British lines.” 

“ Well, but there are plenty of Americans inside 


232 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


the British lines. We are Americans inside the 
British lines.” 

“ Yes,” said Patty, “ but he came in — from the 
outside. And for all they know, he may be a spy. ” 
“ A spy ! ” uttered Dolly in horror. 

“Pooh !” here exclaimed Gervaise, who seemed 
also to have found something in the matter worthy 
of being considered seriously. “ He didn’t come 
here as a spy, and there’s no reason they should 
think he did. A spy comes to obtain information.” 

“Well,” said Patty, “how would they know he 
didn’t come to obtain information ? ” 

“ But a spy comes in disguise too. That is the 
chief thing about a spy.” 

“ O, is it?” Patty’s eyes rested thoughtfully on 
the cuff of Gervaise’s uniform jacket. “Then,” 
said she, “ if an American came into the English 
lines m disguise^ he would be a spy, would he? 
And liable to be arrested and hung ? ” 

“ Well, ye-es, I suppose he might be,” Ger- 
vaise answered very slowly. Evidently a new idea 
had been put into his head ; and he sat and con- 
sidered it a moment in silence. “ But pshaw ! ” 


MASTER GERVAISE IS ARRESTED. 


233 


he all at once burst forth, “that hasn’t anything 
to do with this case. Of course it hasn’t ! ” 

“ Hasn’t it ? ” said Patty innocently. “ I didn’t 
know. They are so very strict since the battle at 
Charlestown. And besides I’ve noticed a British 
soldier several times lately, hanging about this 
street and looking in at our front gate. I saw 
him only last night — talking with cousin Gervaise’s 
servant Pompey.” 

“You did?” exclaimed Gervaise, starting up. 
“ That stupid negro ! What has he been saying 
now ! I wish I had had sense enough to leave him 

in Virg ” Then he stopped himself abruptly, 

aware that his tongue had made a dangerous slip. 

But at this instant — by the happiest accident, 
.it seemed to him — Miss Patty herself created a 
diversion. 

“ Oh ! Oh ! ” she suddenly cried out with a show 
of delight which, considering her years, was rather 
in excess of its cause, “ there’s a robin redbreast ! 
— there under the syringa bush. Quick — quick, 
cousin Gervaise ! Give me your pistol, quick. I 
want to see if I can hit him.” 


234 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


Gervaise, rejoiced enough to think that his un- 
fortunate utterance had passed unnoticed, quickly 
took his pistol from the pocket of his jacket and 
handed it to his cousin. Patty received the wea- 
pon from him rather gingerly and, awkwardly 
cocking it, took careful aim somewhere in the 
direction of the bird, and then, shutting her eyes 
tight, pulled the trigger. The robin, alarmed at 
the report, though quite unconscious of the fact that 
a ball had accompanied it, instantly flew away. 

“ Oh dear ! ” cried Patty, “ I have missed him. 
Isn’t it too bad ? Wait, though ! Sh / He has 
only flown up in the tree. Quick, cousin Gervaise. 
Load it again, please. I can hit him this time, I 
am sure.” She handed back the pistol. 

“I’m very sorry,” said Gervaise, “but I haven’t 
any more bullets — not here. They’re up-stairs, in 
my room. Shall I go and get them for you ? ” 
“Oh, never mind,” said Patty magnanimously. 
“ Let the poor little thing go. I don’t know why 
I wanted to kill it at all. I must have thought it 
was a red-coat.” Then she yawned slightly be- 
hind her hand. “ I think I will take a walk,” 


MASTER GERVAISE IS ARRESTED. 


235 


said she, “down by the brook. I’ve been shut up 
in the house all the afternoon.” 

“ Shall we go with you ? ” offered Gervaise, turn- 
ing to Dolly. 

“O no, thank you,” said Patty. “Pray don’t 
trouble yourself. I’ll go alone.” 

And she turned away at once, leaving them there 
beneath the oak-tree. 

Down at the foot of the grounds she went and ex- 
amined the gate in the wall ; and finding the key in 
the lock, she turned it presently and then trans- 
ferred it to her pocket. “ I may as well make sure 
of that too,” she said, “ while I am about it.” 

Ensign Wigglesworth easily found four stout 
grenadiers who were off duty that evening and who 
were very willing, in consideration of the generous 
piece of gold which the happy little officer promised 
them, to enlist in his private service. These were 
directed to report themselves, fully armed and 
equipped, within fifteen minutes after the Old South 
clock should strike eight, in the middle of a cer- 
tain vacant lot in the rear of the Brenshaw place. 
Not so easy was it however to find the outfit re- 


236 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


quired for his own use on this occasion ; but a 
diminutive drummer of the regiment was finally 
thought of whose uniform, with some alteration, 
AVas made to answer the purpose. Thus made 
ready, and armed with a musket instead of his 
sword, Corporal Wigglesworth met his men at the 
appointed time and place, and putting himself at 
their head, the squad took up its silent line of 
march to the scene of its anticipated operations. 

Arrived at the gate, the ensign listened a moment 
and then knocked softly four times upon the wicket 
as had been agreed ; whereupon a challenge, prompt 
and peremptory, though the voice in which it was 
uttered lacked something of military firmness, is- 
sued from the opening : 

“ Who goes there ? ” 

“ It is I, Miss Patty. Here I am with my men, 
all ready. ” 

Who goes there V the challenger repeated, this 
time sternly enough and in a tone that declared the 
answer already given an insufficient or improper 
one. 


Eh .? O — A Friend. ” 


MASTER GERVAISE IS ARRESTED. 


237 


“ Advance, Friend, and give the countersign.” 

“ Bunker Hill ” 

“ Correct.” 

Then the wicket closed with a click and the next 
moment the gate itself was opened. 

“ Why didn’t you get here sooner ? ” Patty de- 
manded, as the ensign entered. 

“ Why, Miss Patty, it is only half-past eight, this 
minute. You told me half-past eight.” 

“ Humph ! I was here a good deal before that.” 

What with having waited there quite a while 
brooding perhaps over the difficulties of the some- 
what delicate enterprise upon which she had en- 
tered, the young lady seemed a little unreasonable 
and out of humor. “ Well,” said she, after shut- 
ting the gate, “ are you ready to follow me .? ” 

“ Ready to follow you to the death. Miss Patty.” 

“Thank you. You may follow me up to the 
wood-house instead, if you please. I am going to 
put you in the wood-house until I can arrange 
matters a little farther. I haven’t been able to 
arrange them yet. ” Then she suddenly concluded, 
sharply, “ Well, what are you waiting for ? ” 


238 A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 

“Only waiting for you to lead the way, Miss 
Patty,” responded the ensign cheerfully. 

“ Very good. Come, then — and please not 
make so much noise about it. This is a secret ex- 
pedition, remember.” 

Without more words she turned toward the 
house, the ensign walking by her side and his 
men falling in behind. Passing around the stables, 
they stepped cautiously along the grass that bor- 
dered the driveway and at length gained the door 
of the “ wood-house, ” this being the last and small- 
est of a series of additions which extended from 
the house — the wash-room being next to it and the 
kitchen next to that — the three connected with 
each other also by doors inside. 

It was a starlight night, warm and soft. Across 
the sward from where they stood, a door leading 
into the back hall of the house stood open ; and 
from another open door within — which led into 
the kitchen — a stream of light came out and the 
sound of the servants’ voices. 

Patty softly undid the fastenings of the wood- 
house door and threw it open. “ I shall have to 


MASTER GERVAISE IS ARRESTED. 


239 


put you in here for a few minutes,” she whispered. 
“ I will let you know when I am ready for you.” 

The ensign looked in at the door, striving to 
penetrate the darkness. “O, I say now, Miss 
Patty, you don’t mean to shut us up in there. This 
isn’t a joke on us^ is it ? ” 

indeed!” answered Patty indignantly. 
“You may keep the door open — a little way — if 
you want to. Indeed, that’s what you must do, so 
as to keep your eye upon that curtain yonder, at the 
kitchen window. When you see me come to that 
and raise it to look out, then you may know that it 
is time. But until then you are to keep perfectly 
quiet and not stir. Come, go in, please. ” 

“All right, ’’said the ensign, collecting his 
courage. “ Come, men. ” The men stepped care- 
fully inside the door. “ But what shall we do if 
anybody should come out here — for wood or any 
thing .? ” inquired their leader, preparing to fol- 
low. 

“ In that case you must crawl into the charcoal 
bin.” 

“ O, I say now. Miss Patty I ” The poor ensign 


240 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


felt that he was really beginning to taste of the 
horrors of war. 

“Yes,” said Patty. “But nobody will come. 
Come, go in. I shall give you the signal in a very 
few minutes, as soon as I can get him out into the 
kitchen. You are to come to that door there and 
knock; and then, whoever comes to the door — 
probably 1 shall — you are to push straight by 
them and arrest him — -the midshipman. Arrest 
him as a spy, you know, in the name of the King, 
and all that. You’ll know just what to say. And 
then — well, I don’t know just what we will do 
next. It will depend upon what /?!<? does. You can 
watch and take your cue from me. I shall know 
what to do when the time comes. I always do.” 

So saying she pushed the ensign inside the door 
and turned away to re-enter the house as she had 
left it — by a door opening on the side piazza. 

She found the family sitting together in the 
music-room. Gervaise was looking over some of 
Dolly’s drawings with her. “ Cousin Gervaise,” 
said she with an air of being very busy about some- 
thing, “ I’m sorry to interrupt you, but I want very 


MASTER GERVAISE IS ARRESTED. 24I 


much that you should help me a few moments if 
you will.” 

“ Certainly,” said Gervaise, getting up from his 
chair. “ I had just finished looking at cousin 
Dolly’s drawings. ” 

“ You have a good knife, I suppose } ” 

“ Who ever heard of a sailor not having a good 
knife ? ” said Dolly. 

“Well, I want you and your knife out in the 
kitchen a few minutes. I can’t bring my work in 
here, because it would make a litter.” 

“I suppose I can come too,” said Dolly, laughing. 

“ Why, of course,” answered Patty, although she 
would have preferred her sister to remain behind. 

In the kitchen were four of the black servants. 
Aunty Cuba the cook, old Ptolemy, Gracchus, and 
Gervaise’s boy Pompey. They were laughing and 
talking sociably, after the boisterous, innocent man- 
ner of their race. 

“ Aunty,” Patty explained, “ we want to use your 
kitchen a bit. You won’t mind it if we make a lit- 
tle litter, will you ? ” 

“ Min’ it, chile } ” The old woman looked up at 


242 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


her indulgently over her steel spectacles. “ Bress 
your dear heart, Honey, I don’ min’ no litter you'll 
make roun’ dis house. I don’t ask no tidier body 
’n you is ter clean up arter.” 

So, bidding her companions sit down, Patty went 
out into the wash-room, returning immediately how- 
ever, and with a small coil of rope in her hand. 
With this she sat down beside her cousin as if to 
tell him what she wished him to do. There was 
no reason now why she should not at once have 
gone to the window and given the signal agreed 
upon ; but she still felt a little nervous and was dis- 
posed to give herself a few minutes more in which 
to prepare for the decisive instant. 

“ I suppose you know what this is ?” she said to 
Gervaise as she held out the rope. 

“Yes,” he replied laughing, “it’s a rope.” 

“ I’m very glad to find that you can answer one 
question upon nautical subjects.” 

“ A rope isn’t necessarily a nautical subject,” 
said Gervaise. “ Ropes are used on land as well as 
at sea.” 

“Certainly,” returned Patty. “They are used 


MASTER GERVAISE IS ARRESTED. 


243 


to tie horses with, and to hang out clothes, and — 
and to hang spies, I believe.” She had not meant 
exactly to say this last, but her tongue had suddenly 
said it for her. 

“ O, Patty ! ” cried her sister. “ How can you 
say such things.? You make me shudder — after 
what we were saying to-night about our Virginian 
cousin.” 

“ But you are not going to hang any spies with 
this rope, I suppose,” said Gervaise a little crossly. 
“What would you like me to do with it, please ? ” 

“ Well,” said Patty, “ let’s see.” She had no 
very definite idea herself as to what she would like 
him to do with it. “ In the first place, you may 
cut it into four pieces, as nearly equal as possible.” 

“ All right,” said Gervaise. “ That’s easy enough 
done.” He doubled the rope twice and then, with 
two strokes of his knife, divided it into the number 
of parts required. “ What next ? ” 

“ What next ? ” repeated Patty, asking the ques- 
tion as much of herself as of him. 

“Yes; what shall I do with the pieces now I’ve 
got ’em cut ? ” 


244 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


“ Well,” said Patty, “ let’s see again.” She 
was aware that she must think of something ro do 
with them, or else now give the signal ; and the 
latter she was still not quite ready to do. “O,” 
she continued, “I know. You may take two of 
them and splice them together.” 

“ Splice them together ? ” cried Gervaise in dis- 
may. He could not have done such a thing to 
save his life. “ Why,” he protested piteously, “ I’ve 
just cut them apart. What do you want them 
spliced together again for?” 

“ O,” said Patty, “ I’ll show you when you get 
it done.” 

“ Hark ! ” uttered Dolly all at once. I thought 
I heard somebody walking outside the door.” 

“ I’m afraid my remark about the rope has made 
you nervous,” said Patty. 

“ No. There ! I certainly heard a footstep.” 

“ I’ll soon see if anybody is out there,” cried 
Patty, quickly making up her mind that the time 
had come. She jumped up and, going to the win- 
dow, lifted the curtain and looked out. “ I can’t 
see anything,” she declared, truly enough. After 


MASTER GERVAISE IS ARRESTED. 


245 


a moment she dropped the curtain again and turned 
from the window. The next instant a step outside 
was distinctly heard by them all ; and then there 
came a rap at the outer door. 

Patty looked around the room. Everybody sat 
silent; and all — with the exception of Gervaise, 
perhaps — looked startled. 

“ Ar’n’t any of you going to the door ? ” asked 
she. “ Ptolemy ! ” 

“ Sartainly, Missy. Sartainly.” The negro 
arose from his chair with evident reluctance and 
Stood emptying his pipe into his hand. 

“ O, if you’re afraid,” cried Patty, “ I’ll go my- 
self.” She turned impatiently toward the door. 

Before she could reach it, however, the sound of 
numerous footsteps was heard in the hall, and then 
there suddenly appeared in the inside doorway the 
scarlet-coated form of Mr. Wigglesworth, a sight 
not SO terrible in itself but for the more formida- 
ble proportioned figures that loomed up behind it. 
Dolly uttered a little cry ; Gervaise rose to his feel ; 
the servants sat wonder-stricken in their chairs. 

The little corporal advanced to the middle of the 


246 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


room followed by his file of men. There he came 
to a halt, grounded his musket heavily upon the 
floor and touched his hat to the young ladies. The 
original lines of his slender figure were somewhat 
altered by the padding he had found it necessary to 
introduce beneath his coat, and a thick clubbed wig 
completed his sufficiently effectual disguise. 

“ Ve ’opes you’ll ^<?^cuse us, leddies,” he began, 
affecting an elaborate cockney accent and keeping 
his face perfectly straight and solemn. “ Ve don’t 
come ’ere ter make no disturberance whatsosum- 
dever. Ve honly vishes ter do our dooty accordin’ 
ter borders from ’eadquarters, and then ve’ll go 
hoff and leave you as quiet hand peaceful as ve 
finds you. Hit’s honly this young gen’lemun as 
ve has come for.” Then he marched over to where 
Gervaise was standing and laid his hand on his 
shoulder. “ Hi harrest you, sir, hin the name hof 
’is Royal Majesty, King George the Third.” 

Gervaise looked at him in astonishment. “Ar- 
rest me ! ” he exclaimed. “ What in the name of 
His Royal Majesty, King George the Third, are you 
going to do that for, I should like to know.” 


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MASTER GERVAISE IS ARRESTED. 


249 


“Veil, zur,” replied the corporal with dignity, 
“ Hi don’t know as Hi am bound ter say. How- 
sumdever. Hi don’t know, likevise, as there’s hany 
hobjection ter sayin’ that hit’s for treason. Yer 
suspected hof bein’ a spy.” 

At this Gervaise burst out laughing, though his 
merriment was little forced. 

“ Why, you precious dolt ! ” cried he. “ What 
nonsense is this.? Have you been drinking too 
much black beer at some North End tavern .? Take 
your hand off my shoulder, sir, and stand back!” 
He fiercely shook himself clear of the other’s hand. 

“O, I say, now,” declared the ensign, starting 
back in alarm and for the moment forgetting his 
cockneyism. Then recovering himself, he motioned 
to his grenadiers to draw nearer. “ Now, look ’ere, 
my fine fellow,” said he. “You’d better submit 
vithout makin’ no fuss habout it. There’s enough 
hof us ter take yer by force hif necessary.” 

“Then let’s see you do it ! ” said Gervaise, sud- 
denly stepping back and placing himself against 
the wall, pulling out his pistol and cocking it at the 
same time. “Come on, you lobster-coated min- 


250 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


ions ! ” he shouted, now thoroughly aroused and 
defiant. “ I’ll perforate one of you at least before 
you will take me. You are not so small, my friend, 
but that I can hit you at this distance.” He lev- 
elled his weapon at the head of the little officer. 

“O, I say now,” the latter again exclaimed, re- 
treating hastily to the side of his grenadier and put- 
ting up his arm as if to ward off the ball. “Don’t 
fire, for gracious sake ! No violence, you know, in 
the presence of ladies.” 

At this instant Dolly stepped forward, pale and 
beseeching. 

“ O, sir,” said she to the ensign, “ what is the 
meaning of this ? This gentleman is our cousin. 
Master Brenshaw, a midshipman of His Majesty’s 
ship the Somerset. He is no spy. There has been 
some mistake, be assured, sir.” 

“ Mistake ! ” chimed in Patty, also confronting 
the officer and addressing him in her fiercest man- 
ner. “ Of course there has been a mistake. Can’t 
you see, sir, that this gentleman has on a King’s 
uniform and is an officer in His Majesty’s navy ? 
You will be so good as to take yourself out of this 


MASTER GERVAISE IS ARRESTED. 


251 


house, sir — this instant — you and your men!” 
And she stamped her small foot upon the floor. 

“ Eh Really now,” uttered the bewildered en- 
sign, quite at a loss to understand this attitude of 
the young lady. “ You don’t mean, now, do you ” — 
“Yes, I do mean, now, do I ” — Miss Patty ad- 
vanced still nearer to him until her flashing eyes 
looked straight into his. Then she whispered in a 
tone so low as to reach his ears alone : “ O, you 
stupid I Don’t mind anything / say. Do as I told 
you. Arrest him ! The pistol isn’t loaded.” 

“ O — awl Certainly,” gasped the ensign. He 
turned to his men. “Peters, Roulston, secure the 
fellow.” Then he communicated to them, also in 
a whisper, the fact that the pistol was unloaded. 

The men named stepped resolutely forward, pre- 
pared to make short work of obeying the order. 
Soldiers and strong men that they were, they of 
course stood in no fear of a stripling like Gervaise, 
especially when they knew that his weapon was 
harmless. And their task was made even easier 
for them than they anticipated. For at that instant 
the boy Pompey, with a genuine howl of terror and 


252 A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 

dismay, suddenly threw himself bodily upon our 
hero, clasping him about in such a manner as to 
render him for the moment entirely helpless. 

“ O, Mars’ Jarvey, Mars’ Jarvey ! ” he cried out 
in heart-rending accents. In such a moment there 
was no doubt in the faithful servant’s mind about 
this being his real master. “ Dey shahn’t kill you ! 
Dey shahn’t do it ! Dey’ll have ter shoot froo po’ 
Pomp hisself, befo’ dey kin do it ! ” 

Our hero, however much at another time he 
might have valued such an evidence of devotion on 
the part of Mister Pompey, had no patience with 
it whatever at the present moment, and he angrily 
sought to shake himself free. This was no easy 
matter, however, and by the time it had been ac- 
complished the two grenadiers had also laid hands 
upon the young gentleman, and he presently found 
himself, in spite of the vigorous resistance which 
he made, completely a prisoner, his hands bound 
tightly behind his back with a piece of the identi- 
cal rope which he had so lately cut into lengths for 
his cousin Patty. 


MASTER GERVAISE IS ARRESTED. 


253 


“Well,” said he wrathfully, when at length he 
found himself thus secured, “ now that you’ve got 
me — with the help of the negro there — what are 
you going to do with me ? ” 

“ Vy,” answered the ensign, prepared, now 
that the capture was accomplished, to become 
once more prominent, “ you are haccused hof be- 
ing an ZT^ymerican inside our lines in disguise. 
You’ll ’ave to prove hit, you know, or else be 
taken hup ter ’eadquarters.” 

“ Prove what ? ” inquired Gervaise witheringly. 
“ That I’m an Z^^merican ? ” 

“ No ; but that you’re a hofficer and ’ave a right 
to that jacket you’ve got hon.” 

“Of course you can easily prove that^ cousin 
Gervaise,” exclaimed Patty, feeling that she had 
been a good while silent. 

“ Certainly he can prove it ! ” chimed in Dolly 
with dignity. “ What ought to be done, cousin Ger- 
vaise ? Cannot you send word — by one of these 
men, perhaps — on board your ship for somebody to 
come and answer for you ? This — this person ” — 
gravely inclining her head in the direction of Mr. 


254 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


Wigglesworth — “will surely consent to that and 
wait here with you until it can be done.” 

“ Certainly, Miss,” declared the obliging ensign. 

“ O, yes ! ” cried Patty. “ That will be just the 
thing.” 

But Gervaise shook his head. “ No,” said he sul- 
lenly. “ ril do nothing of the kind.” He, of course, 
was aware that there could be no such way as this 
for him out of the difficulty, which, he began to 
feel, was a very serious one. In some way or other, 
it seemed evident the authorities had discovered 
his presence here and that he was not what he pre- 
tended to be. Was it possible that it could really 
be insisted that he was a spy ? The thought star- 
tled him and made him cautious. “ No,” he re- 
peated, “ I don’t care to send for anybody or to 
say anything. It’s all nonsense, of course, about 
my being a spy, but take me to headquarters, if 
you like. I don’t see that I can help myself.” 

“ O,” said the ensign, feeling that this attitude 
on the part of the prisoner was not exactly what had 
been expected. “ I say, but you must do one thing 
hor the bother, ye know.” 


MASTER GERVAISE IS ARRESTED. 


255 


“One thing or the other?’' inquired Gervaise 
haughtily. “ What other? ” 

“ Why, you must either prove that you’re a mid- 
shipman — a British hofficer, you know, or else 
you must hexplain it, ye know — hexplain why you 
hain’t.” He glanced at Patty to see if this way of 
putting it met with her approval. 

“ O,” said Gervaise ironically. “ Well, I don’t 
think I’ll explain Xo you^ at any rate.” 

“ But you will explain to us, cousin Gervaise,” 
put in Patty, somewhat anxious now for the success 
of her plan and quite at a loss as to what should be 
done next if Gervaise persisted in keeping silence. 

“ No,” replied Gervaise, soberly. “ I don’t think 
I’ll explain even to you.” 

“ O, but you must explain ! ” asserted Patty in 
distress. “ You’ll be taken before General Gage, 
you know, if you don’t.” 

“Very well,” responded Gervaise. He had al- 
ready made up his mind that if it had come to it 
that the matter must be explained, it had best be 
explained to the Governor himself. 

“ Yes,” persisted Patty, much provoked at his 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


256 

obstinacy, “ but you will be tried for a spy, maybe, 
and — and thrown into prison ; and — yes, you may 
be hu7tg!^^ She felt justified now in resorting to 
the very severest measures. 

“ All right,” rejoined Gervaise grimly, “ if it must 
come to that. Let ’em do their worst.” 

Patty turned away in great trouble. But after 
an instant’s thought she managed to convey a whis- 
pered word to the ensign. 

'"'‘Ask if you can have the use of the wood-house and 
say that you will put him in there for a while. Hedl 
be ready to confess, I guess, by the time he has been 
kept in a dark coal-bin an hour or two.’’ 

“O — ow ! ” stammered the ensign, slowly catch- 
ing this new idea. Then, “ Veil, leddies,” he said, 
“we doesn’t vish ter do violence to your feelin’s by 
a tearin’ of the young gen’leman avay so sudden 
like — and hall along hof ’is hobstinacy ’cause he 
won’t hexplain. Hif you could give hus the use hof 
one hof the hout-buildings, perhaps ve might keep 
’im ’ere just for to-night.” 

“ Why, certainly,” cried Patty in haste. “You 
can put him in the wood-house. That will be a per- 


MASTER OEKVAISE IS ARRESTED. 


257 


fectly safe place — a great deal better than taking 
him off to prison. And O, cousin Gervaise, do 
think better of this and send to the ship for some 
one ! It will be dreadful to be carried off a pris- 
oner; and you don’t know what may come of it.” 

But Gervaise preserved -a gloomy silence, and 
was thus lead away by his captors to his novel place 
of confinement. 


CHAPTER XL 


THE ESCAPE. 

W HAT does it all mean?” Dolly exclaimed 
as Gervaise disappeared in the hands of 
the soldiers. 

“ Tm sure / can’t tell you,” Patty answered. 
And in truth, although it was in a different way, she 
was quite as much puzzled and distressed as her 
sister. 

“ Tm afraid it means something dreadful at 
bottom,” continued Dolly anxiously. “ Of. course 
cousin Gervaise can prove his innocence easily 
enough ; though I wonder he did not send at once 
to the ship and do it. But I can’t help feeling, Patty, 
ihat all this has something to do with our other 
cousin Gervaise — from Virginia. Perhaps the au- 
thorities have gotten them mixed up in some way, 
and it was he whom they meant to arrest.” 

258 


THE ESCAPE. 


259 


“ I’m sure I don’t know,” declared Patty. “ I’ve 
gotten them mixed up myself.” Then, after a mo- 
ment's reflection, she added, “At any rate, there’s 
no great harm done yet. They haven’t taken him 
away. And I think, Dolly, we had best not say any- 
thing about it to mamma — until they do. It will 
only alarm her. You go back to the music room 
now and I will stay here awhile and see what is 
done. If mamma inquires, you can say you left us 
out here.” 

As Dolly drew near the music-room door she 
caught sound of a manly voice, recognizable at once 
as that of her supposed Virginian cousin ; and she 
hurried forward, overjoyed, to greet him. 

“ Why, cousin Gervaise,” she cried as she ad- 
vanced to shake hands, “ I am so glad to see you 
again ! We have been dreadfully worried. We 
thought you must have been taken prisoner, or im- 
pressed, or something.” 

The young man smiled gravely, rising to meet 
her. “ I don’t know but you were right about my 
being impressed,” said he. “ At any rate, I have 
been engaged in doing boat-service for His Ma- 


26 o 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


jesty almost all the time since I saw you. I was 
just telling the ladies how it took all Saturday night 
and the best part of Sunday to bring back the dead 
and wounded from across the river. I’ve seen some 
awful sights since I left you — enough to sober me 
for one while, I think. I myself brought over, at 
one trip, three dead captains and a dying major — 
all of the same regiment. Saturday was a sad day. 
This town, they say, hasn’t seen so many funerals 
in a dozen years as it saw yesterday morning in 
the various churches and churchyards — to say 
nothing of all the brave fellows, the private sol- 
diers, that were buried where they fell.” 

“ It is very sad,” Madame Brenshaw murmured. 
“ We have heard before this that the royal loss, in 
dead and wounded, can fall little short of a thou- 
sand men. The whole town is wrapped in gloom 
— except the Whigs who, no doubt, are rejoicing 
at the murder their friends have done. They cer- 
tainly have nothing else to rejoice at in this affair.” 

“ Pray where did you disappear to so suddenly 
that morning on the Hill ? ” Dolly inquired. “ We 
looked around and you were gone.” 


THE ESCAPE. 


261 


“O,” answered the young man with no show of 
confusion, “ I saw somebody whom I knew ; and duty 
called, you know, so 1 slipped away. I saw there 
was going to be a fight and I thought I might be 
some help somewhere.” 

“ You acted in a manner quite worthy of your 
name,” pronounced Madame Brenshaw approv- 
ingly. “ I wonder that your cousin of England did 
not also hear the call of duty and slip away. It has 
seemed to me very strange, I must say, that he, an 
officer of the Royal Navy, should have been con- 
tent to remain a spectator, while his comrades 
were fighting for their King.” 

“ O,” said the stranger lightly, “ not half the 
troops were in the action, you know. There were 
plenty of men both ashore and on board the ships 
who had nothing to do but to look on.” 

“ It seems, however, that you found something 
else to do,” rejoined the lady, “ though you were not 
an officer at all.” 

“ By the way, where is our English cousin — 
and Miss Patty also?” the lad inquired, glancing 
around. 


262 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


“ They are out in the other part of the house,” 
Dolly answered him at once. *• Would you like to 
see them .? We will go out and find them if you 
wish.” This was the opportunity the girl had been 
wishing for. 

So they two went out together into the hall. They 
were no sooner out of hearing of Madame Bren- 
shaw and the governess than Dolly halted, laying 
her hand on her companion’s arm. 

“ O, cousin Gervaise,” she said, “ something per- 
fectly dreadful has happened. They’ve arrested 
our other cousin Gervaise.” 

“ Arrested him ! ” exclaimed he in a startled 
voice. “ Who has arrested him ? And what for ? ” 

“ Some soldier sent by the Governor — and they 
say he is suspected of being a spy.” Then she 
related briefly the circumstances of the arrest. 

“ May I be keelhauled ! ” exclaimed he, as she 
finished. “ I expected something of the sort to 
come of this nonsense ! ” He stood and reflected 
a moment with a troubled face. “ I tell you what 
it is, cousin Dolly,” he at length said, very soberly 
indeed, “ this is no joke.” 


THE ESCAPE. 


263 


“ No, indeed ! ” said Dolly. 

“ Where have they taken him to } Do you 
know ? ” 

“ O, they haven’t taken him away yet. They have 
locked him up in the wood-house and are keeping 
guard over him.” 

“ W hy, that’s very odd,” said he. “ What did they 
do that for ? ” 

“ Patty persuaded the officer, I believe. She 
always makes them do as she wishes.” 

“ I’ll warrant you ! ” said the stranger. “ Well, 
I’ll go out there at once. Maybe I can explain it 
to ’em.” 

“ But,” interposed Dolly, “ don’t you think you 
had better not show yourself to them } Don’t you 
see there must be some mistake } Isn’t it proba- 
ble it was you whom they meant to arrest ? Of 
course there can be no real reason for thinking him 
a spy, when they know who he really is ; but you, 
being an American, you know, and coming into the 
town from the outside, and — and ” — She hesi- 
tated and looked up at him timidly. 

He shook his head, smiling faintly. “ There isn’t 


264 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


the slightest fear of their thinking me a spy, cousin 
Dolly. You needn’t worry about that. However, 
it may be just as well for me not to go out there 
just now. I wish I knew what to do, though.” 

“ Why would it not be a good plan, then,” sug- 
gested Dolly, '■'‘lox you to go down to his ship — if 
you think you could get off to her — and get some- 
body to come on shore and identify him. We tried 
to get him to send one of the soldiers ; but he re- 
fused. He was very angry and would do and say 
nothing at all. ^\xX you could go, couldn’t you ? ” 
“Yes,” replied the stranger, somewhat absently, 
for he was still thinking deeply. “ Yes ; I suppose 
I could go.” Then he asked suddenly, “You say 
he is locked up in the wood-house ? ” 

“ Yes.” 

“ The wood-house is the farthest of the out-build- 
ings, isn’t it ? Is there any door to it except the 
outside one ? ” 

“ Yes ; you can go through the wash-room door.” 
“ Is there any other opening — any window 
“ No ; — at least there is nothing but a scuttle 
in the roof out at the farther end.” 


THE ESCAPE. 


265 


“ Is it fastened ? ” 

“ I think not.’^ 

“ Hum ! ” murmured the young man. 

“ Well,” said he decidedly, “ I think I’d better 
be off at once. You’ll have to make some excuse 
for me. I can’t say just when I’ll be back. I’ll just 
take the key of the south side-door, in case I should 
be late.” 

Then he went back into the front hall for his 
hat ; and Dolly, listening carefully, heard him let 
himself softly out by the door he had named. 

Dolly went at once to the kitchen to commu- 
nicate to her sister the result of this interview. 
Patty was sitting at the kitchen table with her chin 
in her hands, reading Benjamin West’s JVew Eng- 
land Almanack; or, Lady's and Gentleman's Diary 
for 1775. She looked up and yawned as Dolly ap- 
peared. “ It is rather tiresome work, this keeping 
guard,” said she. “ But I’m going to stay out here, 
nevertheless. And I think it is very foolish of 
cousin Gervaise to let himself be shut up so, when 
he could release himself by a word. If he is a mid- 
shipman why doesn’t he prove it ? ” 


266 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


“ It is going to be proved for him right away,” 
Dolly replied ; and then went on to inform her sister 
that their other cousin had returned and how she 
had just sent him off to the Somerset to get some- 
body to come and identify the prisoner. 

Patty looked more puzzled than ever. “ Do you 
think he has really gone down to the Somerset to 
get somebody ? ” asked she. 

“ I do,” answered Dolly, who fully believed she 
had been assured of this. 

“ I wonder if it is all right about them, after all,” 
Patty mused to herself. “ If it is, I shall have made 
a pretty mess of it.” Then she said aloud, “ Well, 
it will be some time before he gets back. And I am 
tired of sitting here. Suppose we go the Grand 
rounds.” 

She led the way out the door. Outside the 
house all was dark save that the stars and the light 
from the windows rendered objects near by indis- 
tinctly visible. Near the deor of the wood-house 
two grenadiers could be seen solemnly marching up 
and down with their arms at shoulder. The two 
girls walked along the path in their direction ; and 


THE ESCAPE. 


267 


Patty, as they arrived at the wood-house door — 
which stood wide open — made a move as if to en- 
ter. She was instantly stopped by a musket that 
barred the way. She drew back with eyes whose 
flash could be seen in the darkness. 

“ What do you mean by that, sir } ” she demanded 
of the offending sentinel. “ Can’t we enter our 
own wood-house, if we please, I should like to 
know.” 

“We can’t let anybody pass here. Miss,” an- 
swered the soldier respectfully. “ Them’s the or- 
ders.” 

“ Humph ! ” said Patty. “ The next thing we 
know you will come and post yourselves in the 
house, I suppose, and forbid us to enter our own 
dining-room or drink out of our own cups and sau- 
cers. We wish to see the prisoner.” 

The man shook his head. “ Very sorry, Miss ; 
but we can’t let you in.” 

“ We’ll seeii you can’t ! ” cried Patty with a wrath 
that, if partly assumed, was also partly genuine. 
She turned about in the direction of a large apple- 
tree that stood by itself a few rods away and be- 


268 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


neath which, seated on a bench that was there, the 
forms of Mr. Wigglesworth and his remaining two 
men could just be made out. 

“ Corporal ! ” she called out peremptorily. “ Cor- 
poral of the Guard ! ” 

The ensign came running forward at once. 

“ This person tells us we cannot go in here,” said 
Patty. 

“ Veil, Miss ; them is his borders.” 

“But we wish to go in,” declared Patty. 

“ Vy, certainly, Miss, hif you vishes to go in you 
can. Peters, let the leddies go in hif they vishes.” 

“ Ah ! I thought we could if we wanted to,” 
Patty said with an air of triumphant satisfaction. 
She seemed in no hurry to enter, however, now that 
permission had been granted. The utter blackness 
and stillness that reigned within did not especially 
invite her. “Why do you leave the door open ? ” 
she asked. “ Ar’n’t you afraid he will escape } ” 

“ He can’t get out. Miss, with the men right ’ere,” 
the ensign assured her. “ And vith the door open, 
ve can look in vonce in a while hand make sure he 
is still ’ere and hain’t hup ter no mischief.” 


THE ESCAPE. 


269 


Patty advanced a step and looked in at the door. 
“ 1 can’t see him anywhere,” said she. Then she 
called out in her sweetest tones, “ Cousin Ger- 
vaise ! ” There was no answer at all. “ Why,” she 
said, “ he can’t have escaped already, can he ? ” 

“ No, Miss,” answered Peters who still stood by. 
“ He’s in there. I spoke to him only a minute 
or two ago. He naturally feels a bit unsociable, 
though, sitting there all alone in the dark with his 
hands tied.” 

“ O,” said Patty, “ he is a little cross, is he ? 
Then I think we won’t go in, now. And I think 
it is very silly of him ” — she raised her voice in 
saying this so as to be sure that the prisoner heard 
her — “to insist upon being shut up in this way 
when he could go free any minute if he would only 
say the word. He deserves to be shut up in the 
dark with his hands tied.” 

Then she and Dolly went back to the house. 

“ How can you talk to those men in the way you 
do ? ” asked Dolly at the kitchen door. “ And one 
would think you were almost glad that cousin Ger- 
vaise is being treated so.” 


270 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


“ Well, I am out of all patience with him ! ” said 
Patty. “ And besides, there isn’t any real danger, 
of course. Let’s go back to the music-room, now. 
Mamma will wonder what has become of us. And 
I’ve had enough of waiting around here for nothing 
to take place.” 

Gervaise, although he had vouchsafed no answer 
to Patty’s call, had by no means effected his es- 
cape from his extemporized prison ; indeed he had 
not as yet any particular thought or hope of doing 
so. His unexpected and humiliating arrest with 
the half-hour of confinement in this dark and com- 
fortless place that had followed it, had truly, as his 
cousin said, made him very “ cross,” so that he did 
not care to see or speak to any one, not even to her; 
but it was not so much over his present condition 
as his future prospects that he presently found him- 
self gloomily brooding ; and, boy that he was, sit- 
ting there alone in the silence and night, it is not 
to be wondered at that his fears increased by and 
by beyond all reason and control. He was accused 
of being a spy — of entering the enemies’ lines 
in disguise. How was he to prove himself inno- 


THE ESCAPE. 


271 


cent of the charge ? Indeed, was he not technically 
guilty of it ? And, in spite of his youth, in spite 
of the true explanation of the facts which, when the 
time came, he would give, was it not certain that a 
military court would instantly condemn him ? Con- 
demn him } Condemn him to what ? He had 
thought little of all this before to-night ; but he 
thought of it now with growing horror, and visions 
distinct and terrible crowded upon him of the aw- 
ful fate that awaited him. He groaned aloud. He 
cried out in mingled wrath and terror. He strug- 
gled wildly to free himself from the cords that bound 
his hands and confined him also to the heavy bench 
on which he sat. But all in vain ; and at length, 
weary and wretched he settled down into a state of 
dull, despairing stupor which, though it was not 
sleep, was almost as unconscious as sleep. 

How long he sat thus, after Patty had called his 
name at the door, he did not know. He was 
aroused by a sudden noise in the further end of 
the room — a noise as of some one groping his way 
in the darkness, falling over some obstacle, and 
which was attended by a smothered exclamation. 


272 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


Gervaise, in his present exaggerated state of feel- 
ing, was deeply startled. He would have started 
up, but his bands prevented him. “ Who’s there ” 
he demanded in a low intense voice. 

There was an instant’s silence and then a whis- 
pered answer : 

^^Hush! It is I.” 

“ Who are you ? ” 

“Why — confuse it! I’m your — your cousin 
— the other fellow, you know. I’m Gervaise Bren- 
shaw of Virginia, by your permission. I’ve come 
to get you out of this.” 

“Oh ! ” responded Gervaise in a tone of instant 
and entire satisfaction. He realized now that this 
was once more the mysterious stranger appearing to 
him ; and he cared little at the moment what he 
called himself so long as he had come to help him. 

“ That is,” continued the other, “ if you don’t go 
and spoil everything by bawling out as though you 
were hailing the maintopmast head. Where are you, 
anyway ? This is worse than cruising in a Channel 
fog. O, here you are 1 ” Then our hero heard his 
quick breathing close beside him and felt a hand 


THE ESCAPE. 


273 


on his shoulder. “ You ought to show an anchor 
light.” 

“ 1 certainly am pretty securely anchored,” grum- 
bled Gervaise. 

“ What are you — tied ? ” The hand began fum- 
bling at the cords. “ Well, may I be disrated and 
turned before the mast if this isn’t the clumsiest piece 
of work I ever came across. What marine triced 
you up this way, I should like to know. Hold on 
until I get my knife.” The next moment the pris- 
oner felt his bonds loosened and found himself free. 

“ How in the world did you ever get in here ? ” 
Gervaise asked in wonder. 

“ O, I came down the scuttle.” 

Gervaise reached out in the darkness and seized 
the hand that had freed him. “ I owe- you a good 
deal for this,” said he warmly. 

“ All right. But don’t stop to pay me now. I 
can wait. This is serious business. You must get 
away from here and out of this town to-night, or I 
won’t answer for what may happen to you in the 
morning. They’d make mighty little of hanging 
you for a spy as things are now. This wearing my 


274 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


uniform about was a precious piece of nonsense, 
anyway. I ought to have known enough to put a 
stop to it. Are you ready 

“ Yes.” 

“Come along, then. And mind you, not a par- 
ticle of noise, or you’ll get me into trouble too. 

^ Here, this way.” 

Then slowly and cautiously, the stranger leading 
Gervaise by the hand, they groped their way back 
across the room, hailing at length at its other end 
and where, as they looked up, a small square open- 
ing could be seen in the roof, with the starlit sky 
above it. 

“Are you sailor enough to climb a rope hand 
over hand } ” asked the stranger ; and Gervaise 
perceived now that a line hung down from the hole 
in the roof. 

“Of course.” 

The stranger took hold of the line and gave it a 
gentle pull. It did not seem to be securely fas- 
tened. He raised his voice, though still speaking 
in a whisper, and called out toward the opening 
above : 


THE ESCAPE. 


275 


“ Hallo, there, on the roof. You piece of ebony 
uselessness, why don’t you hold on to that rope as 
I told you ? ” 

“ Who is up there } ” Gervaise asked. 

“ Who ? That black chattel of yours. x\nd he’s 
about as handy to have around at a time like this 
as a ship’s parson in a gale of wind. I say there,” 
he whispered hoarsely again, giving the rope a 
shake. 

“ Iss, mars’r,” this time came the answer in 
Pomp’s well-known accents. 

“ What are you — asleep ? You just attend to your 
business, sir, or I’ll pull your ears for you when I 
get up there.” 

“ Umph ! Ee pull ’em bof out by de roots already, 
mars’r.” 

“ Is that rope still passed around the corner of 
the roof ? ” 

“ Iss, mars’r.” 

“ Well, hold on to it, as I told you.” He turned 
to his companion. “ Now, then,” said he, “up you 
go. You can have my hand and shoulder, if you 
want it.” 


276 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


But Gervaise, regarding this quite as much the 
accomplishment of landsman as seaman, scorned 
the proffered assistance and swiftly ascended the 
rope to the opening. He had scarcely passed out 
to the roof, where Pompey was posted, when he 
found the nimble stranger once more beside him. 
To slide down the slope to the eaves and thence to 
the ground was a much easier process and one which 
all three quickly effected. Gervaise drew a long 
breath and stamped his foot upon the sod. 

“ Ah ! ” said he, “ it feels good to stand upon 
terra firma once more and know that one is free.” 

“ There’s an old saying that one shouldn’t crow 
till he’s out of the woods,” observed the stranger. 
“ We are nowhere near the edge of the woods yet, 
and there is more need to be careful than ever. 
Hist! What’s that?” 

The exclamation and question had been drawn 
from him by a slight sound which his quick ear had 
caught coming from beneath the trees farther up the 
grounds on that side the house. They all listened 
breathlessly and in a moment the sound developed 
into that of an approaching footstep accompanied 


THE ESCAPE. 


277 


by the hum of a human voice as of some one singing 
to himself. 

“ Gracious ter massy ! ” uttered the negro in a 
tone by no means as prudently controlled as the 
circumstances required. “ Somebuddy’s a-coming ! ” 

Quick as thought the stranger whirled around and 
seizing the black by the collar twisted it about his 
neck until the poor fellow nearly choked. “ Hush ! ” 
he fiercely whispered. “ If you make another sound 
or whimper I’ll knock your head against the build- 
ing here until your eyes won’t stay in.” 

The new comer seemed not to have taken alarm, 
however. The sound of his step ^nd voice drew 
steadily nearer, and presently the outline of his 
form — by no means a formidable one — was to be 
made out scarcely a rod away. 

“ Why,” uttered Gervaise under his breath, “ it’s 
the little fellow that arrested me. He’s coming right 
by us, too. Before George ! ” — and he laid hold 
of a pitchfork that, with its prongs in the earth, stood 
there against the building where his rescuer had 
used it a short time before to mount to the roof — 
“ I’ve a great mind to pay him what I owe him 


278 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


now.^' Out here in the open air with his newly re- 
covered liberty, Master Gervaise was quite his old, 
hot-headed self again ; and now, at sight of the lit- 
tle Englishman, his sense of wrong overcame his 
discretion. 

But he felt/iis companion’s grasp close like a vise 
upon his arm. “ For the life of you, don’t you do 
it ! ” the latter cried in his ear. “ You’ll bring the 
whole file down upon you in twenty seconds. Don’t 
stir a finger. He won’t come close enough to see 
us. It’s very dark right here.” 

The approaching figure was indeed that of Ensign 
Wigglesworth, who after a while preferring his own 
company to that of his men, had set off for a stroll 
around the house, and who was now sauntering 
unsuspiciously along within a few feet of where 
Gervaise and his companions were standing, still 
humming to himself some sentimental air and com- 
placently thinking perhaps of the vivacious young 
lady at whose commands his present lone watch 
was kept. 

Directly opposite to Gervaise and his friends, 
and not ten feet away, there was a large tree whose 


THE ESCAPE. 


279 


branches threw a deep shadow over the spot' where 
they stood huddled together, and served the more 
effectually to conceal them. The ensign, passing 
between them and this tree, halted a moment at 
its foot and musingly stood there, still continuing 
his humming. Had he stopped to listen he must 
certainly have heard their breathing — at least the 
excited respiration of the negro of whom the 
stranger still retained his hold — so near was he 
to them. His face, as it chanced, was turned 
directly toward them ; but the shadow, as has been 
said, was especially deep just here, and the ensign’s 
eyes moreover were raised to the stars above their 
heads. As he stood in this attitude, however, a 
somewhat remarkable and extremely unfortunate 
accident occurred. 

The windows of the servants’ hall, which was in 
the main part of the house and immediately ad- 
joined the kitchen, looked directly out upon this 
spot, though the room was empty now and perfectly 
dark. It happened, however, just at the precise 
moment when Ensign Wigglesworth halted beneath 
the tree, that aunt Cuba took up her light from the 


28 o 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


kitchen table and went with it into the servants’ 
hall in search of something of which she had need. 
As she advanced into the latter room, she paused 
a moment and peered about her, raising the lamp 
above her head at the same time and holding it in 
such a way that its rays immediately fell at the 
point out doors where the three fugitives were at 
that instant anxiously hiding. The effect, though 
it was one which the good old lady could not pos- 
sibly have intended, was as instantaneous and com- 
plete as if it had been carefully calculated. A 
bright parallelogram of light was suddenly pro- 
jected from one of the windows upon the white 
surface of the wood-house exactly behind where the 
fugitives stood, within which, as though they formed 
a picture in a frame, the figures of the three ap- 
peared in black, startling distinctness — the negro, 
with terrified countenance, half cowering upon the 
ground with the stranger’s fingers still twisted in 
his collar, and Gervaise, pitchfork in hand and with 
foot advanced, occupying a position just before the 
other two. The eyes of the ensign were of course 
instantly attracted to the spot. 


THE ESCAPE. 


281 


The song that he was softly singing ended itself 
in a sudden gasp. The little soldier started back 
in affright. For the moment he believed himself 
in the presence of one of those very pitchfork-bear- 
ing rustics for whom, when the Charles River ran 
between them, he had always exhibited such pro- 
found contempt, and who now, it appeared, was 
about to charge upon him with his barbarous 
weapon. He raised his hand in feeble protest. 

“ O, I say, now ! See here, you know ” — he 
was able to utter faintly. But then, all at once 
recognizing in our hero his late prisoner, and 
remembering that his brave command was close at 
hand, he suddenly raised his small voice and cried 
shrilly for help. 

Gervaise’s blood was up. Discovery and recap- 
ture seemed certain, but he said to himself that he 
would not be taken again without showing some 
fight. And his heart at the moment was filled with 
wrath and bitterness toward the person before him 
who had made the discovery and was now seeking 
to give the alarm. He shook the stranger’s hand 
from his arm and sprang forward, his unusual but 


282 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


formidable weapon levelled straight at the face 
and eyes of his diminutive foe. Whether his pur- 
pose was really as sanguinary as it thus appeared, 
may not with certainty be said. Very possibly it 
was, for the lad was desperate and angry. If so, 
however, the deed he actually did was better than 
his intention. The ensign, finding himself thus 
charged, so to speak, at the point of the pitchfork, 
and having himself no reason at all for doubting 
that the attack was made in good faith, drew back 
in horror with a faint repetition of his - favorite 
ejaculation of “ 1 say now ! ” His retreat however 
was instantly cut off by the tree behind him against 
which he fell helplessly back. At the same time 
the terrible fork kept straight on with gathered 
force and, narrowly missing the head of the young 
gentleman which was at that moment thrown 
squarely back against the trunk, passed directly 
beneath his ears, a prong on either side, and buried 
itself deeply in the tree. The result was — curious 
enough to relate — that the unhappy ensign, when 
presently he came to realize his position, found 
himself a helpless prisoner, as securely fastened to 


MISS I-ATTY AND THE SOLUIEKS HASTEN lO THE ENSIGN’S RELEASE. 








$ 



k 

. k. 




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I 






I 







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I 

a 


f 



THE ESCAPE. 


285 


the tree as though he had been tied to it with cords. 

Gervaise, feeling his weapon strike the tree, sup- 
posed in the darkness that the enemy had escaped 
him. He gave the handle a pull, but finding it 
stuck fast he left it there and turned to his com- 
panions. The shouts of the soldiers in answer to 
their commander’s cry for help could be heard on 
the other side of the building, and another moment 
would bring them upon the scene. The stranger, 
alert and undismayed, already had our hero by the 
arm. 

“ Come,” cried he. “ There’s a chance for us 
yet. We’ve got to go out by the front gate. Run 
as fast and as quietly as you can.” 

“Where’s Pomp?” asked Gervaise, hesitating 
an instant and looking around for the negro. 

“ He has disappeared somewhere. We can’t 
stop for him. Come along.” 

The cries of the soldiers were heard coming 
nearer around the building; and without further 
words Gervaise and his friend — for friend he cer- 
tainly held him — dashed off into the darkness 
beneath the trees. 


286 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


They need not have feared pursuit, however, for 
there was none. Two of the soldiers appeared 
upon the scene the next moment and, in obedi- 
ence to the ensign’s pitiful call, approached the tree 
where he was confined. Before they could release 
him, however, the other two men also came up, 
and with them Miss Patty, bearing a lantern. The 
young lady came forward and held the lantern so 
that its light fell upon the tree. And lo ! there 
was the gorgeous little ensign, unharmed as to a 
single hair of his powdered head, but as neatly 
and securely fastened to his place as though he 
had been a butterfly impaled upon a pin. 


CHAPTER XII. 


MASTER BRENSHAW LEAVES BOSTON. 

T he order of the Commander-in-chief oblig- 
ing all persons to be within doors at ten 
o’clock at night, except such as had a pass from 
himself, made of the town of Boston a very quiet 
place at the late hour when Gervaise and his com- 
panion, making their way cautiously but with all 
possible haste out of the Brenshaw grounds, ap- 
peared upon the public street. From this they 
turned quickly off, the stranger choosing their way, 
hurrying along through a series of secluded streets 
and alleys with which Gervaise was entirely un- 
familiar so that he was presently quite at a loss to 
know in which direction they were going, or in what 
locality they were. 

“Where are we, anyway?” he at length found 
breath to inquire. 


287 


288 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


“ We are only a short way from the east end of 
the Mill Pond,” answered the stranger. ‘‘This 
is Back street, there are patrols down on Hanover 
and Middle streets.” 

“ Where are you taking me ? ” 

“ Down to a wharf near the North Battery where 
Tve got a boat. You must get out of town at 
once.” 

“ I suppose I must,” Gervaise assented regret- 
fully. “ I declare, I hate to go off in this way, 
though — without a word to my aunt and cousins. 
I wonder what they will think of me.” 

“ It doesn’t so much matter what they think of you 
as what the authorities think of you if they get hold 
of you. I tell you what, sir, they would make 
precious little of hanging you up by a rope just 
now — after the fight of Saturday. As for the peo- 
ple at the house,” continued he, “ I’ll go back there 
to-morrow and make it all right with them. I’ll tell 
them the whole story and explain all about it.” 

“ Will you ? ” said Gervaise. “ That’s a good fel- 
low. You’d better tell ’em just who I am and how 
I happened to — to deceive ’em as I did. If you can 


MASTER BRENSHAW LEAVES BOSTON. 289 

explain it so that my aunt will forgive me, I’ll be 
mighty glad. I say, though,” he suddenly added, 
“what ’ll you tell her about yourself? ” 

“O, I’ll tell her who / am, too.” 

“ Will you, though ? ” Gervaise all at once turned 
and looked at his companion as they walked along, 
although he could no more than make out the out- 
line of his face in the darkness. For the first time 
the personal identity of the stranger struck him as 
a matter of some interest in itself. “Who are you 
anyway ? ” he bluntly asked. 

The other laughed. “Who do you suppose I 
am ? I should think ” — Then he abruptly broke 
off, halting and turning about. “ Hark ! ” 

They both stood and listened. 

“ I don’t hear anything,” said Gervaise. 

“ I did — a footstep. Wait a moment.” 

The stranger left his companion and walked 
back into the darkness down the street. Presently 
he came hurrying back. '‘'‘Somebody is following 
us!” cried he in a whisper. “Come, we must 
run for it.” 

All at once, as they dashed along Salem 


290 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


Street, running in the middle of the street, they 
saw a light ahead and then they heard a shout. 

“Hallo, there! Who goes there? Halt and 
give an account of yourself.” 

They stopped short in dismay. 

“ It is the sentry at the foot of Copp’s,” said the 
stranger. “ We’ve come farther down this street 
than I meant to.” 

“Shall we run back?” proposed Gervaise. 

“No, no! Here.” The stranger fumbled in 
his pocket for something and then held it out to 
Gervaise. “ Here is a pass — for Gervaise Bren- 
shaw, midshipman. You have the uniform on, so 
you had best take this too. Go straight up to him 
and inquire your way. He won’t know there are 
two of us ; and I will slip into this doorway here. 
I’ll overtake you in a moment. If I don’t, make 
your way as fast as you can to the first shipyard 
south of the North Battery — Grant and Green- 
wood’s, it is called — where you’ll find the boat 
and they’ll take you across. Go ahead. Here he 
comes.” The speaker gave our hero a push and 
then secreted himself beneath a neighboring stoop. 


MASTER BRENSHAW LEAVES BOSTON. 


The sentry came up at once, holding a lantern 
aloft so that presently it shone on Gervaise’s uni- 
form. “ Humph ! ” he grunted, seemingly a good 
deal disappointed at finding a King’s officer instead 
of a citizen of the town. “ I thought there were 
two of you.” 

“ In the habit of seeing double ? ” queried Ger- 
vaise carelessly. 

“I didn’t see at all, but I could have sworn I 
heard four feet instead of two.” 

“ Do you mean to insinuate that I am a quad- 
ruped ? ” demanded our hero. 

“ It’s rather late to be out,” said the sentry, ig- 
noring this demand. “ You have a pass, I suppose.” 

“ Of course I have.” Gervaise presented the 
paper the stranger had given him. 

The soldier examined it by his lantern. 

“ Hum,” said he. “ You are Gervaise Brenshaw, 
midshipman ? ” 

“ Can’t you read ? ” returned Gervaise. 

All right,” grumbled the other, satisfied at last 
and returning the pass. 

“I’ve rather lost my reckoning,” said Gervaise. 


292 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


“ What is the quickest way to the North Battery?” 

“ Well, this is Charles street, here at the corner. 
Keep down that till you come to North street — 
then turn to your left and the second alley on the 
right is Battery alley, which will take you right 
down there.” 

“ All right, and much obliged,” returned the lad 
and at once passed on. 

He had gone only a few rods along Charles 
street when he heard a footfall behind and next 
moment the stranger again stood beside him. 

“ We have gotten rid of said the latter as 
he came up. “ But we’ve no time to lose. Some- 
body is after us. I caught sight of a man’s form 
a short way behind us, while you were talking with 
the patrol.” 

So they hastened on again, turning to the left at 
North street and presently diving down an alley 
which brought them out upon Ship street, from which 
the stranger led the way to the wharves, arriving 
at length at the place where he had left his boat. 

The boat was there, lying at the head of the 
wharf with the men in it. Gervaise climbed down 


MASTER BRENSHAW LEAVES BOSTON. 


on board in obedience to his companion’s command 
to “tumble in,” and they pushed off. The oars 
were scarcely shipped when the stranger’s alert 
eye caught sight of a dark form suddenly appear- 
ing at the head of the wharf. 

“ Give way, men. Give way,” he shouted, with- 
out farther attempt at concealment. “Whoever 
catches us now will have to swim for it.” 

But before the order could be obeyed, a well- 
known voice, piteously raised from the wharf, caused 
the young officer at once to countermand it. 

“Hoi’ on, dar, Mars’ Jarvy. Fur de lub o’ 
Hebben don’ go off ’n’ leabe po’ Pomp in dis Ian’ 
o’ darkness. Here’s ’ee baggage, too. Mars’ Jarvy.” 

“ I’ll be cashiered if it isn’t that darky of yours,” 
exclaimed the stranger. “ So it was he that was 
following us.” 

So they put back to the wharf and the negro 
with his baggage was taken on board. 

They pulled out and around the extremity of the 
peninsula, laying their course for the Cambridge 
shore. The young officer at the helm knew exactly 
the position of every man-of-war in the inner har- 


294 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


bor and was easily able to avoid them. It was 
necessary to keep a careful lookout, however, as 
also to preserve the strictest silence ; so that little 
was said during the passage. 

No less caution was needful as they drew near 
the low shore which was their intended destination 
— though the fear was not now on Gervaise’s ac- 
count but on that of his companion. 

“/don’t want to be taken by the Yankees, you 
know, any more than you do by the English,” the 
latter said. 

“ Why,” Gervaise answered, “ there’s no danger 
of that. I should tell them how it was and insist 
upon their letting you go.” 

“ Humph ! ” , the other dryly observed. “ I’m 
afraid your influence wouldn’t amount to much if 
once they got hold of me and my boat’s crew,” he 
continued. 

They pulled silently along the land, running the 
boat ashore at length at the very extremity of a 
long, narrow point where it seemed impossible that 
any evil-disposed foe could lie in concealment. 
Gervaise and the negro stepped on shore and after 


MASTER BRENSHAW LEAVES BOSTON. 


a moment’s reflection the young midshipman fol- 
lowed them. 

“I ’ll walk up with you a little way,” he said. 
“ There doesn’t seem to be anybody around.” 

A few rods away from the boat however he 
stopped short. 

“ I won’t go any farther than this, though. The 
point seems to widen all at once here to the left, 
and I don’t like the look of that pile of rocks yon- 
der. It would make too convenient an ambush.” 

“ Then we part here, do we ? ” said Gervaise. 

“ Yes.” And he held out his hand. 

Gervaise grasped it warmly. “ I shall never for- 
get what you have done for me to-night,” said he 
with deep feeling. “ And, now,” he added, “ I want 
to know who it is to whom I owe so much. You 
didn’t tell me, after all.” 

The other laughed again. “ I am Gervaise 
Brenshaw of Virginia, at your service,” he answered. 

Gervaise laughed too. “ I don’t believe I can 
let you have that name any longer,” said he, “ I 
shall want to resume it now, myself.” 

“ Well, then, if you are Gervaise Brenshaw of 


296 A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 

Virginia, perhaps I had better call myself Gervaise 
Brenshaw of England. You won’t want to use that 
name any longer.” 

“No. But, joking aside, pray tell me who you 
really are. I shall want to know your name so 
that if I ever should run across you, you know.” 

“ Well,” began the stranger more seriously. And 
apparently he was now really on the point of com- 
municating to his companion the asked-for fact. 
But oddly enough he was at that instant again in- 
terrupted, and in much the same manner as had 
been the case once before that night as he had 
seemed about to declare his identity. While they 
had been talking they had at the last unthinkingly 
moved on again to a position that brought them 
nearly abreast of the pile of rocks alluded to. Sud- 
denly from out the deep shadow enveloping these 
rocks there came a gruff, peremptory challenge. 

“Who goes there? Stand or we’ll shoot.” 

The lads turned in alarm; and there, a short 
distance from them and seeming to have sprung 
from the very earth, a half-dozen human forms 
could be discerned in the gloom, so distributed as 


MASTER BRENSHAW LEAVES BOSTON. 


to render hopeless any attempt at retreat either in 
one direction or the other. Then a dark lantern, 
suddenly opened, shed its light upon the scene. 

“ Well ! ” muttered the stranger, very coolly, but 
in a tone of intense disgust. “ It seems that I’ve 
got myself into the very fix we spoke of, after 
all. I deserve to be hanged for my stupidity.” 

“Wait a bit,” returned our hero quickly. 
“ Maybe we can come it over these fellows yet.” 
Gervaise was on his own ground now as it were, 
and it was he who had his wits most about him. 
“ Let them think I’m your prisoner — I’ve got a 
British uniform on. And then, in a minute or so, 
I can make a break perhaps ; and you’ll get a 
chance to run for the boat.” 

“ Who goes there ? ” again sharply came the 
challenge ; and the dusky forms were seen to be 
approaching, cutting short farther conference be- 
tween the two. But the Englishman had not been 
slow to comprehend Gervaise’s plan. 

“ Who goes where ? ” he now answered back in 
a thoroughly assured voice. “It is too dark to go 
much of anywhere, I should say. I wish you would 


298 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


tell a fellow when you are going to jump up at 
him like that. You nearly scared me dumb. I’m 
piighty glad to see you, though. I’ve got a pris- 
oner here — I and my negro boy. He’s a mid- 
shipman, I take it, from his uniform. I wish you’d 
help us take him up to camp.” 

The men now drew near and examined the group 
by the light of their lantern. They themselves 
were rough, ungainly fellows who had as yet by no 
means acquired the daring and manner of regular 
soldiers. The young Englishman had whipped out 
a piece of cord from his pocket and was fumbling 
at Gervaise’s hands which he had brought together 
behind him. 

“ Sho ! ” said the man who bore the lantern and 
who seemed to be a sort of leader of the squad. 
“ Shouldn’t think ye would need much help — two 
on ye, so — ter take him in. Here, Penniman, hold 
my lantern.” 

Penniman, for some reason, did not step forward 
on the instant to comply and the lantern was there- 
fore set down upon the ground. Gervaise at that 
instant thought he saw his opportunity ; and rais- 


MASTER BRENSHAW LEAVES BOSTON. 


ing his foot, with a well-directed kick he sent the 
lantern flying a dozen feet away, the light of course 
being instantly extinguished. Then, with one vig- 
orous leap, the lad cleared himself from the group 
and darted off into the impenetrable darkness that 
succeeded the glare of the light. 

The midshipman, who was prepared for this, lost 
not an instant in springing away in apparent pur- 
suit — in which, after one moment of stupid inac- 
tion, he was joined by the astonished countrymen. 
The lad had put a rod of distance between them 
and himself however, and he was thus enabled to 
turn instantly aside unobserved; then, dropping 
flat upon the ground, he had the satisfaction of 
hearing his enemies go shouting off in hot chase 
of his late companion, who himself kept up such 
an insane hooting and holloing as he ran as might 
well have convinced them, had they stopped to 
think, that he was far from being as anxious as 
would appear to make good his escape. A moment 
later the stranger was speeding undetected back 
to his boat. 

Gervaise presently halted and gave himself up. 


300 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


His captors took him back to the point but found 
only the negro awaiting them there. Our hero, not 
troubling himself to make any explanation, was 
taken inland to the American camp and passed the 
rest of the night in a guard house. In the morn- 
ing he sent for General Putnam who made himself 
responsible for him and took him home to his 
quarters and to whom he told the entire story of 
his visit to Boston. The General gave him a good 
lecture for his imprudence and declared that he 
should not henceforth let him out of his sight. 

Gervaise felt sure, of course, that his friend had 
safely effected his escape ; and he was much re- 
joiced. In thinking over again all that had passed 
between himself and this mysterious stranger since 
their first meeting at the Sign of the Golden Ball, 
he wondered more than ever who the young Eng- 
lishman could be. And while he was wondering, 
he took from his pocket the pass which the other 
had handed him in Salem street the night before. 
The paper was worn and soiled as though it had 
been carried about for some time. Gervaise read 
it carefully through. 


MASTER BRENSHAW LEAVES BOSTON. 301 


Headquarters^ Boston^ 
2 ()th May, 17 75* 

The bearer, Gervaise Brenshaw, midshipman, has 
his Excellency the Commander-in- Chief ^ s permission to 
go about at any hour unmolested within the lines, and 
also to pass and repass the advanced lines, 

fa : Urquhart, 

Town Mayor. 


To all concerned. 


“Ah!” murmured Gervaise, as his eyes still 
dwelt upon the paper, “ he must have gotten this 
on purpose for me, to help get me off. It is made 
out in my name. He’s a mighty fine fellow, that 
he is ! And I’ll never forget it.” Then again 
his glance fell upon the date. “ Hello ! ” he ex- 
claimed. “ What’s this t The twenty-ninth of 
May ! Why, he never had heard of me the twenty- 
ninth of May.” He stood and scowled at the 
document in growing perplexity. Then he began 
reading it through again : 

Headquarters, Boston, 
2()th May, 1775. 

The bearer, Gervaise Brenshaw, midshipman — 


302 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


There he stopped and pondered ; and slowly 
there dawned upon his mind a truth which, how- 
ever plain it may long before this have seemed to 
the reader of the story, had not, up to this moment, 
for an instant entered the head of its hero. 

“ As true as I am a born idiot,” said he in an 
awestruck tone, as at length he arrived at a full 
belief in the remarkable fact, “ that fellow was 
my cousin, Gervaise Brenshaw, from England ! ” 

“ Well,” he candidly added to himself at last, 
“there has been a good deal of pulling of wool 
over people’s eyes in this affair ; but there has been 
nobody who has been so completely blinded and 
bamboozled as I myself.” 

On Sunday the seventeenth of March, seventeen 
hundred and seventy-six, the British army consist- 
ing of about eleven thousand men, with something 
like a thousand refugees from the town, went on 
board the English fleet and set sail for Halifax. 
And while they were yet within sight of the wharves, 
the Continental troops under General George 
Washington marched in and took possession of 
the town. 


MASTER BRENSHAW LEAVES BOSTON. 


Gervaise Brenshaw, though he had not revisited 
Boston during this interval, had, with his father’s 
permission, remained with General Putnam in its 
vicinity, and he was with the victorious battalions 
when they entered the place. It was with a good 
deal of misgiving, as well as much pleasant antici- 
pation, that he turned his steps in the direction of 
his Aunt Brenshaw’s residence. 

As he turned in at the w.ell-remembered gate and 
looked up at the house, his heart sank within him. 
The outer shutters of the windows were all grimly 
closed and the place had an unmistakably empty 
and deserted look. Fearing the worst he went 
slowly up the steps and raised the knocker of the 
door. The sound echoed and reverberated through 
the loneliness within ; and he was almost surprised 
to hear presently the withdrawing of bolts and bars 
inside. Then the door opened a little way and the 
wrinkled visage of old Ptolemy appeared. 

“Is dat you. Mars’ Jarvy?” the negro asked, 
and then threw the door wide open. “ I’se b’en 
expectin’ of yer all de mawnin’. Miss Patty, she 
say she was shuah yer world come.” 


364 A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 

“Then Miss Patty is here, is she.^” said Ger- 
vaise, immensely relieved. 

“ No, Mars’ Jarvy. Dey’s all gone off, ebery one 
of ’um, an’ lef’ ol’ Ptol’my to take keer de house. 
Dey’s gone on bo’d Gin’ral Howe’s own ship an’ 
sailed f’r England. An’ de good Lord on’y knows 
when dey’ll be back ag’in.” 

Gervaise needed to hear no more to understand 
what had happened. In common with many other 
prominent tories of the place, his aunt had pre- 
ferred to trust herself and family to the ships with 
the royal army rather than remain behind to enjoy 
the tender mercies of the incoming rebels. He 
went in and sat down in one of the hall chairs, 
leaning his head upon his hands and feeling sad 
and disappointed enough. 

Ptolemy went into the music-room and, return 
ing without any delay, placed in our hero’s hands 
a letter. 

“ Miss Patty writ it,” he explained. “ She say 
how I wos ter gib it to yer immejit.” 

So he eagerly took the missive and read it, de- 
riving from its pages, we may assume, no little com- 


MASTER BRENSHAW LEAVES BOSTON. 


305 


fort and possibly some information. The letter 
was as follows : 

Dear Cousin Gervaise: 

We learned from a deserter, about a month ago, that you 
were still in the American camp, and I felt sure you would 
come here as soon as you could get into the town, so I leave 
this letter with Ptolemy. We are going to sail with the 
troops. We are going to England. Mamma insists upon it 
and of course we must go too. We are so sorry not to see 
you — at least Dolly and I are. Mamma, I fear, will never 
forgive you for deceiving us as you did and she will not be 
persuaded that you were not really a spy, although cousin 
Gervaise has explained it all to her again and again — cousin 
Gervaise from England I mean. Perhaps you have guessed 
before this that he was our English cousin — the real mid- 
shipman, you know — though he says you did not know it 
at all at the time, any more than we did. But I want to tell 
you that you did not deceive us quite as much as you thought 
you did — at least not me. I suspected that something was 
wrong about you two all the while and now I have to inform 
you that that British corporal who arrested you was really 
an ensign who was a friend of mine and it was all a joke of 
my arranging, your being arrested in that way and put in the 
wood-house. -I thought I should get you to tell who you 
were in that way. So the joke was not all on your side. 


3o6 


A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. 


But there isn’t time to write any more. We are going on 
board ship early to-morrow morning. It is one of the ships 
that is going direct to England and cousin Gervaise has ar- 
ranged it so that we shall have as comfortable quarters as 
could possibly be expected. I do hope that this terrible war 
will soon be over — but I hope it will never be over unless 
the Americans can get their liberties. Dolly sends her cous- 
inly love — as for mamma I don’t dare tell her I am writing 
you. I hope we shall come back to America before long. 

Your affectionate cousin, Patty. 

Seven years after that, when peace was estab- 
lished once more, Gervaise Brenshaw, then a full 
grown young man in the blue ,and^ff uniform of 
a major in the Virginia light nouse, found himself 

once more in Boston and entering again the door 

/ 

of his Aunt Brenshaw’s horse, The family, as he 
already knew, had some time since returned from 
England. It need hardly be told that his two girl- 
cousins, now grown to be dignified and elegant 
young ladies, were delighted to see him; as was 
no less also a manly young fellow in the uniform 
of a lieutenant of the Royal Navy — Sir Gervaise 
Brenshaw — who presently stepped forward and 
shook his hand twenty times. 


MASTER BRENSHAW LEAVES BOSTON. 307 


As for Madame Brenshaw, she also was there ; 
and she did not refuse, bowing stiffly at the same 
time, to extend to him her hand. But our hero, 
as he took it, could not help thinking that it felt 
very much the same as on that evening long ago 
when she had first greeted him in this very hall ; 
and his own feelings, for the moment, were not very 
different. 


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Writings of Ella Farman, 

F-DITOR OF WIDE AWAKE. 

o 

Ella Farman teaches art no less than letters ; and what is more than both 
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in the average school. — New York Tribune. 

The authoress, Ella Farman, whose skilful editorial management of “ Wide 
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great capacity to amuse and instruct our growing youth can take a wider 
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From Different Stand- 


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Home (The). 


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An Endless Chain. 

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DIr. Dean’s Way. 

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Tip Lewis. 

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The Pocket Measure. 

Mrs. Solomon Smith. 


Miss Priscilla Hunter and 
My Daughter Susan. 
What She Said and 
People who Haven’t TiMi 
Cloth. Price, $1.00. 

Mrs. Harry Harper’s 
Awakening. 

New Year’s Tangles. 


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The Pansy Primary Library, 30 vols., 


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r 



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In a general way, the public are familiar with the aims 
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